Sunday, April 20, 2008

Young Voters Could Be Key in Pennsylvania

here's to hoping that all of the college students and 20-somethings get out and vote on tuesday. i wish i lived in pennsylvania cause i'd drive you en masse to the polls. but that doesn't seem necessary. young voters are motivated. the question is, who has the bulk of young voters? obama or clinton?
philly inquirer: Democratic strategist Neil Oxman said that most polls do not sample enough younger voters because they usually are not a factor in primaries. Obama changes the dynamic, he said.

"If all of those kids who registered come out, he could steal the election," said the Philadelphia-based Oxman, who is not working in the race. "And if everybody over 60 votes, she could blow him away. Each of them has enough voters to win this thing."

another unknown: who did all those new democrats sign up to vote for? and who did those independents and republicans switch party affiliations to vote for? these people make up about 325,000 un-polled people. then there are the "undecideds," there are about 15% of these voters who have left pollsters guessing.
philly inquirer: "The election has stabilized, with no movement among any of the big voter groups in the last week," said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. "It's a battle of the east versus the west and a battle of defined demographics, and everybody is trying to figure out what will make the difference."

Two things that could: the 15 percent of voters who tell pollsters they remain undecided, and the roughly 325,000 newly registered Democrats in the state, a mixture of first-time voters and those switching affiliation to participate in the closed primary.

In previous races this year, undecided voters have broken toward Clinton. An estimated 24 percent of newly registered Democrats in Pennsylvania are younger than 35, a group that has overwhelmingly supported Obama.