Young voter registry effort exceeds goal

AUGUSTA – A campaign to register more young voters in Maine, primarily through campus-based activities, surpassed its goal of 5,000 by more than 200, its leaders said Wednesday.

The 5,200-plus figure represents more young voters than anyone else has enrolled in a single push in Maine, said Kate Simmons, Maine state director for the nonpartisan New Voters Project.

While it is not known how many of the new voters actually will get to the polls, a follow-up effort is under way to remind young people through e-mails, phone banks, posters and campaign-style hats and wristbands to get to the polls Nov. 2, Simmons said.

“Young people are a force in this election,” Simmons said at a news conference with Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky. Youths are realizing they are affected by the issues, “and it’s time for the politicians to pay attention to us.”

The New Voters Project earlier this year announced a campaign in Maine and 19 other states to enroll thousands of new voters, including 5,000 in Maine. Nationally, the effort claims more than 346,000 new registrations.

Since the announcement of its Maine goal two months ago, it brought its effort to nearly two dozen university and college campuses across the state.

Some businesses that attract young people, such as Bull Moose Music and L.L. Bean, also participated in the New Voters Project. In addition, project volunteers staffed fairs, concerts and sporting events in search of young voters.

Simmons said the New Voters Project also was aided by Gwadosky’s Promote the Vote effort, which asked college presidents to endorse registration activities on their campuses.

The leaders of Maine’s college Republicans and Democrats both said they were pleased with the results, which they believe will help young voters to have an impact on the election in Maine.

Dan Schuberth, Maine College Republican chairman and a Bowdoin College student, said 1,000 of those who signed up through the New Voters Project enrolled in his party.

His Democratic counterpart, fellow Bowdoin student Alex Cornell duHoux, promised, “We are going to be a deciding factor.”

The bulk of the new enrollees did not sign up with a political party, Simmons said. While the New Voters project was aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds, some people up to age 30 registered to vote.

Four years ago, roughly half of the 108,000 Mainers between ages 18 and 24 voted in the presidential election. That was lower than the two-thirds of Maine’s overall voter-age population that cast ballots.

Gwadosky said he expects the young voter effort to push Maine’s voter-age turnout rate upward on Nov. 2 to the nation’s best, as it was in 1992 and 1996.

“We’re going to be number one in voter turnout this year – no question in my mind,” Gwadosky said.

Simmons said young people tend to be swing voters, a claim supported by some polls.

The New Voters Project is supported in large part by the Pew Charitable Trusts.