This year's presidential election took two Union College students in opposite directions: Ross Feinstein headed 500 miles west to campaign for the Republicans, while Ben Lyon went 150 miles east for the Democrats.
To hear them share their campaign trail experiences — a first for both, even though each voted in 2000 — is to hear how two 22-year-olds learned important lessons in politics.
“Whatever happened was whatever happened, and we knew that we put our best foot forward,” Feinstein said from his Westchester County home, where he retreated for a few long nights of sleep after an exhausting 96 hours chasing around the Akron, Ohio, area for President Bush.
Lyon, who knocked on doors for Sen. John Kerry weeks ago in the student's home state of New Hampshire, was back in Schenectady for his Union classes this past week. “Win or lose, the more people who get involved, that's what you need to do to further your goals,” he said.
While the power brokers in the nation's capital assess the results, many local college students struggle to understand a political arena they are just starting to experience.
Most young voters in the Empire State will focus on what it feels like to lose. They pulled the voting machine lever overwhelmingly for Kerry, even more so than older generations did in this solidly blue state.
Many who voted wondered what happened to all those good intentions to increase voter turnout among young people.
Besides the flashy Rock the Vote-style campaigns, with pop icons and funky T-shirts, Web sites targeted younger voters, from campaign fund-raising to conversational blogs that encouraged sharing opinions.
Students who turned to blogs and chat rooms across the country debated the returns and hoped for the best. The last post on many Democratic student sites was Kerry's concession speech at Faneuil Hall in Boston — except for the blog of the College Democrats of New York University. That group's site, perhaps, summed up the students' attitude best with the final entry, taken from a song often heard on the campaign trail: “Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow).”
Despite all the encouragement to register, getting the younger voters to cast a ballot is a different story. Many times students must fill out an absentee ballot or return home from college to vote — not as easy as walking to the local polling precinct.
According to census data, the youngest voting age group comprises about 7 percent of the population, which is about equal to those over age 65. Yet those youngest voters accounted for only 17 percent of ballots cast nationally, compared with 24 percent for those over age 60.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy reported a 9.3 percentage point uptick in voters under age 30, according to exit polls. That is still low compared with other age groups, especially since more voters of every age turned out this year.
States with fewer voting restrictions showed more of an increase in youth voter participation, according to a study conducted last year by the center.
In New York and many other states, citizens voting through absentee ballot must prove they are unable to vote where they live. However, states that allow unrestricted absentee voting see higher turnouts on election days, the study found. And the biggest turnout among youth voters occurs in states that allow same-day voter registration, which can lead to an increase of up to 14 percent.
“It's a matter of simplifying the process, and streamlining, that will get students to do it,” Lyon said.
Feinstein offered another suggestion for why turnout failed expectations. “There was a real great vibe on campus,” he said, but some students' attitude was, “I'm from Massachusetts, Kerry's winning anyway, so I don't need to vote.”
No matter how many vote, though, the younger age group tends to skew to the left of the political spectrum. For them — especially in a solidly Democratic state like New York — the tough lessons can come from figuring out how people in the rest of the country can have viewpoints so different from their own.
Polls showed the biggest issue for voters in the Midwest was one of values and ethics, often translated into religion, something the students in professor Terry Weiner's introduction to American politics class at Union could not fathom.
“They just have a hard time relating to those parts of the country where it's legitimate that the separation between church and state can be questioned,” Weiner said of his students.
“They're very discouraged, but there was already chatter about who could go next time,” Weiner said.
While many of the students prefer a liberal candidate like former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Weiner said his students have a more politically practical viewpoint now. After watching Bush get re-elected, they are willing to support a more centrist candidate, if that's what the Democrats need to win the White House.
“Their heart is in one place, but their mind is in another,” he said.
Democrats at the University of Albany struggle with understanding the rest of the nation as well, said Josh Terry, campus president of the College Democrats. At 21, this was his first presidential election.
“It's just so shocking,” he said.
This weekend, he tried to stay positive. He reminded himself that 48 percent of the country voted in a way he can understand, for Kerry. He remained philosophical.
“We realize this is one battle in the whole war,” he said. “We are the next generation of leaders. We have a whole lot more battles.”
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