Turning Out the Youth Vote an Exercise in Politics
Michael O'Brien
Posted: 05.08.2008 / 3:33 PM EDT
The other day, Politico profiled Matthew Segal, a Kenyon College student and the founder of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE).
The group, Segal told Politico, was borne out of irregularities he witnessed as a volunteer at Kenyon during the 2004 elections. The article also says Segal worked as a field producer for the documentary “Stealing America: Vote by Vote.”
Alas, it’s time for me to voice my inner cynic: Segal along hundreds of other students on campuses throughout the country organize these “get out the vote” efforts every two or four years. However, like Segal, many of the activists have vested political interests, despite working for nonprofits like SAVE. Though many of these organizers may have civic interest as their top priority, working to turn out the vote among college students–who tend, more often than not, to support Democratic candidates–has a profound political impact.
Whether you’d get these activists to admit some satisfaction with this reality, however, is an entirely different question.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Michael–
Nobody is fooled by the “civic minded” get out the vote types. The votes they want to get out are the votes for their preferred candidates. It never changes. They are lining up “victims” to vote against those who have worked and succeeded. It is a successful scheme in a country such as ours is becoming–or perhaps has already become.