Younger voters ages 18 to 29 are continuing to cast significantly more ballots and make up a greater share of the pre-Election Day vote than they did around the same time four years ago, data shows.
While students who spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash expressed some reservations about the candidates, they all agreed that the election is a main issue their friends are focused on.
“I don’t know if I know any…of my personal friends who haven’t voted already,” one University of Virginia student told Bash.
“People are really starting to recognize [with] just all of the different chaos within the political climate right now, that voting is the only real say that we can have,” said Kaylee Corvin, outreach coordinator for the UVA College Republicans, which is canvassing around neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, UVA Democrats are driving people to the polls. Hunter Hess waited with a fellow student for an hour for her to cast an early vote.
“We’ve been doing it a lot, especially with first-year students who don't know the voting process very well,” he said.
Youth turnout broke records in 2018, and experts say protests over racial justice are keeping the surge going.
“We found that young people who were marching and demonstrating, not only more likely to be registering people to vote, but were much more likely to talking to other young people about the election and issues that they care about,” Abby Kiesa of Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life.
Both campaigns have focused on digital efforts to reach younger voters, Bash reported.
The Biden campaign launched designs for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris characters on the game “Animal Crossing,” while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined gamers on Twitch and Biden’s granddaughters joined discussions with social influencers. The Trump campaign said their best influencers are young people reaching out to friends, such as participating in a March Madness-style competition called “#MAGAMadness.”
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