Obama Nails Down the Youth Vote

October 22, 2008 11:02 AM | | Comments (0)

Polls from the Washington Post/ABC News, Harvard University's Institute of Politics and Gallup underline Barack Obama's strength among younger voters.

The Post/ABC poll says Obama leads McCain by 12 points among white voters under 30, a group that John Kerry lost by 10 points in 2004.

The Harvard poll, conducted Sept. 12 - Oct. 6, says voters in the 18-to-24 group favor Obama by 56 percent to 30 percent with 15 percent undecided. Forty percent of these voters said McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate made it less likely that they would vote for the ticket compared to 19 percent for Joseph Biden. Sixty percent said the choice of Biden made no difference to their decision while only 35 percent said that of Palin.

Gallup's analysis of its daily tracking polls for Oct. 14-20 shows registered voters between 18 and 29 favor Obama 62 percent to 34 percent. But the big question is how many will turn out? Has this particular election year energized them more than others? Gallup says "as of mid-October, there is not convincing evidence in the Gallup data that young voters will in fact vote at higher rates than in past elections. But even if things change over the next two weeks and many more young adults do become motivated to vote, turnout alone would do little to change the candidates' overall support, according to Gallup's likely voter models."

Categories: Gallup, Presidential, Washington Post/ABC News

Tags: Obama McCain Palin Biden

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