National youth voter turnout has been on the decline since the 1970s. But here in Alaska, we do it our own way. Alaska ranks first in the nation for voter turnout among people ages 18 to 24. Way to go AK ! In the 2000 presidential election, 63 percent of eligible Alaska youth voted - that's compared to 42 percent nationally, according to the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement.
So what motivates our young people to vote? This reporter visited the University of Alaska Anchorage's student union to ask young voters themselves.
"Well you feel like you're contributing to the whole process, you know. I know a lot of my friends are like, why vote, you know, who cares?" said Dhabih Suel. "But it makes you feel like you're part of the system, you know."
Kristina, 19, says she heads to the polls to express herself.
"It's fun, you know, to have a choice. To get to put your two cents in, I guess."
Some interesting trends emerged as we spoke with young voters. While everyone asked was a registered voter and took pride in voting, most paid more attention to national elections and few voted in the last several municipal elections. One such voter, student Spencer Shroyer, 24, says he has a good excuse.
"Actually, because I'm registered in Homer and I haven't taken care of some of that. So I guess I'm not a good voter in that sense," Shroyer said.
However, some young voters say they feel their votes don't count in presidential elections compared with more local contests.
"Personally, I think it's way more important to vote in local elections than for the president," Tara Janik, 23, said. "Just because the way we vote for the president our vote for the president doesn't matter. Electoral college, especially in Alaska, two little votes - yeah. Whereas, who we vote for as senators and who we vote for representatives, locally, does make where our money goes and what we do with it."
Most students say they grew up in households that discussed issues and candidates and followed political campaigns together. Kelsy Fuller, 19, says her family often disagreed.
"Me and my dad fight about who should be president. So I want to vote so he can loose. Me and my mom are on one side and he's on the other because they disagree, too."
It seems everywhere you turn groups and organizations are trying to mobilize the youth vote. There's Rock the Vote, the Youth Vote Coalition and MTV's Choose or Lose. But do these programs matter? Young voters gave mixed responses. Amanda Wrenn, 18, says yes.
"Because it gets you more informed so that you're not just saying, we'll I don't know what's going on, I can't vote. And then it makes you think more and if you get an opinion you'll be more likely to do something about it," Wrenn said.
Sean Aube, 19, disagrees.
"Unfortunately, I don't think it does do it for people because it's just kind of corny and I think that really they need, like younger people need to start encouraging people to vote, because then it's a lot more effective," Aube said.
While these students may disagree on whether such efforts are working, all the young voters we talked to agree that all citizens, especially youth, should get out and vote.
Youth voters
