Youth Vote Strong Showing For Obama

a full report of the youth vote in indiana and north carolina

By Jason Zimmerman, University of Florida Law

62% of the youth vote in Indiana. 74% of the youth vote in North Carolina. Chris Cillizza at the Post cited young people as winners in last night’s primaries. In Indiana, there was an increase in the youth vote by more than 30,000 over the 2004 presidential campaign. This primary, an event that typically has a significantly lower turn out than the November general election, showed that all of you decided to roll up your sleeves, and work hard for a candidate that plans on working hard for you.

I don't think it's simply Obama's eloquence, or his ability to inspire is what is drawing these amazing amounts of new and young voters to the Democratic process. Rather, I think its Obama's willingness to talk about the problems affecting our generation, and his willingness to listen to us and speak to our issues.

Take for instance the growing student loan issue. Just today, an article on Mobilize.org, a site geared towards informing young voters about issues affecting them, wrote up a brief on the impeding student loan crisis. This is a real issue that would affect the young voters who are coming out in droves for the Obama campaign. The brief, entitled “We’re Broke, Let’s Fix It: The Student Loan Crisis and Its Impact on the Millennial Generation”, gives an insight on a crisis that we as a generation have to deal with. Cost of higher education is going up, while amount of long-term government assistance is going down. Interest rates are going up, so the loans that we need are getting harder for us to pay back.

Obama has a plan to fix this; a plan that has thousands upon thousands of college students working hard to ensure that plan is brought to life. Increasing the amount of Pell Grants, while streamlining the financial aid process by eliminating the over-complicated FAFSA are just some of the fixes Obama has in store. However, the centerpiece is the American Opportunity Tax Credit. This credit will write-off the first 4,000 dollars of your college education. To earn this credit, all you have to do is participate in 100 hours of community service. All you have to do is roll up your sleeves, and give back to the community that is helping you get a higher education. College is being made more affordable to all groups of people, while strengthening community bonds and relationships.

This idea directly helps the millions of youth in our generation who are struggling to get to college. This idea is one of the many Barack Obama has that will directly help the people of America. This idea is just one of the reasons why new and young voters are overwhelming the expectation game with their involvement.