Group, politicians encourage teens to vote

If Joy Burke were born three days earlier, she'd be able to vote in November's general election. "I'm missing it by three days - I'm really disappointed," said Burke, a senior at Tempe's Marcos de Niza High School. "I think it would really benefit the high school if a lot of kids get to go vote."

Even though Burke is too young to vote, she's hoping many of her classmates who are already 18 will choose to cast ballots.

And she's not alone.

On Friday, some local Tempe politicians and Vote 18, a national nonprofit group, joined forces to promote that in a classroom at Marcos de Niza High School.

Vote 18 runs a fast-paced interactive game taught at high schools during one class period, teaching students the history of voting and trying to make it relevant to their lives.

Since 1972, when the voting age was lowered, 18- to 25-year-old citizens have statistically been the voting age group with the lowest turnout.

"We try to get students interested based on their own self-interest and using emotional appeals," said Marco Ceglie, executive director of Vote 18.

Vote 18 also is concerned with high school students who don't end up in college where voter registration drives are strong.

"Only 70 percent of Americans in high school graduate, and 40 percent of those go to college. So there are 5 million kids who don't get exposure to Get Out the Vote. We don't want to just reach kids in college, we want to reach everyone and get their voices heard," Ceglie told students.

After talking about the basics, and discussing issues, such as oil drilling and the war in Iraq, the class held mock elections. Then, he removed 40 percent of the voters so they could see what happened.

"Once you were stopped from being able to vote, it made you kind of upset, you really saw the difference it can make," said D.J. Riley, 17.

Riley said all it takes for teens to realize their vote matters is to look at their wallets - and their gas tanks. The economy is one of the biggest concerns, he said.

"With this economy, teens aren't getting as many jobs, and it's putting a strain on them," he said. "With the price of gas, it's not even always worth it to have to drive to a job."

Following the nationwide trend, the youth voter turnout in Arizona in 2004 was 46 percent - up 17 percentage points in 2000.

Nationally, many experts are hoping this year's youth vote turnout will increase, and maybe surpass the 50 percent mark.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement did research showing new voting laws, including Election Day registration and early voting contributed to higher rates, especially in young people.

Democrats are hoping to capitalize on the rising youth vote. According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, in the 2004 election, in which young people turned out in record numbers, the majority voted for Sen. John Kerry. And in the 2006 midterm elections, national exit polls showed youth voters chose Democrats over Republicans by 58 percent to 37 percent.

But local politicians stressed that their voices are even louder in smaller, local elections.

"We impact them every day, on the roads, how many police you have on the street, whether we have graffiti on the walls, and only 17 percent of eligible people voted in the last council election," said Tempe Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian. "That's disgraceful."

Shekerjian said the event at Marcos de Niza gave her hope for the future because she saw students starting to understand the importance of voting.

But not everyone is convinced the recent rise in voting among the young is going to make a big difference in November.

When asked about the upcoming presidential elections, Michael Rubinoff, a history professor at Arizona State University, said he believes anyone who is counting on the youth vote to carry them is misguided.

"For some reason, with youth comes unreliability," he said. "It's fatal for anyone who is banking on young people to come through ... I'm not saying no young people vote, but you can't assume that they'll all go to vote en masse."

Rubinoff said he believes the shift in thinking doesn't happen for people until they have to move out - and moving into dorms does not count, he said - and support themselves or a family.

"They can't connect to things like high taxes. They'll say programs that lower taxes are good, but they are supported by their parents so when it comes time to vote, they won't."