New Rock the Vote Poll

Today, Rock the Vote released the results of our latest poll of 18-29 year olds, the first to ask young people their thoughts on McCain-Palin vs. Obama-Biden and the most recent to ask young voters what issues are deciding their vote this fall.

Here are some interesting tidbits; you can check out the full results here.

The faltering economy is at the top of young voters’ minds.

• 41% of those surveyed said the next president, whoever he is, should take action on the economy and jobs as his first move in office.
• 51% said “creating jobs” was a 10 on a scale of 1-10 (most important) in deciding for whom to vote in November – higher than anything else, although nearly tied with “gas prices/energy” at 50%.

We want more talk of issues in this presidential campaign.

• Health care, college affordability, jobs and the economy, the environment – for nearly every issue we asked about, young voters said the presidential candidates are spending “not enough time” talking about them.
• 63% want to hear more about creating jobs, 56% want to hear more about health care, and 64% want to hear more about college affordability. 54% want more on gas prices/energy and 50% want more on immigration.

Young voters are paying serious attention to this election, and know they will play a major role in a historic moment.

• 87% plan to vote in November (up from 82% in our February poll);
• 92% have talked with friends or family about the election;
• 57% are following the election extremely or very closely (up from 42% in February);
• 88% think that, as a group, young people have the power to change things in this country;
• 82% think this election is an opportunity to make history by electing the first African American president; 69% think this election is an opportunity to make history by electing the first woman vice president.

Young voters continue to trend Democratic.

• In today’s poll, 50% of 18-29 year olds say they are Democrats, 29% say they are Republicans, and 12% say they are Independents.
• When asked for whom they will vote in November, 56% say Barack Obama and 29% say John McCain. 13% remain undecided.
• For Congress, 49% say they will vote for the Democratic candidate and 27% for the Republican candidate.

Clearly, young people are energized, paying attention, and keyed into top campaign issues – candidates from president on down to city council should get out there and talk to young voters. All signs point to 2008 being the third major election in a row with increased young voter turnout – and the more we see on the ground, from our polling, and online, the more likely it looks like we might hit record turnout levels on November 4th.

41 days to go! See you at the polls.

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kat Bio: Email the author at: blog(at)rockthevote.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 8:15 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Joe Biden, polls, young voters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.