Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: Fewer Young People Plan To Vote
BOSTON (CBS) – The idea of college students and other young people not getting out of bed to vote is nothing new.
But a new poll from Harvard's Institute of Politics shows their lack of involvement getting worse.
It finds people aged 18-to-29 will be very hard to find at the polls in November. Less than a quarter - only 23-percent - say they definitely plan to vote in the mid-term elections.
To be fair, turnout tends to drop during midterms. More people vote in years when there's a presidential election.
But, this number is down more than 10-percent in just the last five months. And it's the lowest level of interest in any election since 2000.
The institute's director says millennials' cynicism toward the political process has never been higher.
Some of this is probably just young people being young people.
But more than half of those surveyed said they don't believe politicians share their priorities. And many pointed to the gap between rich and poor in this country - a theme that has developed over the last couple of years.
Think Occupy Boston.
And this could be a bigger problem for Democrats as apathy over politics is clearly more pronounced among young liberals.
The poll finds young Republicans who voted for Mitt Romney in the last election are far more likely to vote in the fall.
Follow Joe on Twitter @joemathieuwbz
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