[lbo-talk] youth turnout

[Doug Henwood]

Yesterday, I quoted an analysis by Gary Langer, ABC's "poobah of  
polling," reporting that the black turnout in the primaries was up  
proportionately with everyone else's - turnout in all groups was up,  
so the black share of the vote was in line with past averages. I  
wrote Langer to ask about the youth vote. Here's his response:

"Doug - Under-30s made up 14 percent of 08 Dem primary voters per our  
exit polls. That's exactly the average in data from 1976-2004. That  
said, there has been election-to-election variability, and 04 and 00  
were low points, so 08 was up from the most recent past."

Sooooo....this line about how Obama has energized the young and the  
black isn't really all that true. Wish I knew this the other night,  
so I could have responded to Gary Younge's claims with a bit of fact- 
checking.

Doug