In the 2004 presidential election, perhaps 54% of the nation's youngest cohort—dubbed
“Generation Next” by some pollsters—cast a vote. This was a substantial increase over the
42% of eligible 18–25-year-olds who voted in the 2000 election (U.S. Census Bureau 2005; Pew Center 2007). Still, youth voting rates lagged behind the voting rates of those citizens
older than 25–66% made their way to the polls on Election Day in 2004 (Lopez, Kirby, and
Sagoff 2005). It is likely that voting rates will
increase in the current youth cohort as they age, as has happened in both the Baby Boomer
and Generation X cohorts. But transforming more of the large Generation Next cohort into
voters earlier in adulthood could substantially increase democratic participation in
upcoming elections and for decades to come, as habits of civic participation developed in
youth often last a lifetime (Miller and Shanks 1996). Two-thirds of young people now enroll in some form of higher education.
Colleges and universities of all types would therefore seem to be natural sites to mount
efforts to improve youth voter turnout. And because interest in voting among the youngest
adult cohort seems to be on the rise, this would seem to be the time to encourage more of
such behavior. But how can institutions of higher learning best promote democratic
participation, especially voting?