Young Americans can swing the election... if they vote

NEW YORK: Most under 30s don’t vote in the United States. This year however, in a contest between two septuagenarians, experts predict a record number of younger Americans will cast ballots – a development that could tip the result.

With universities closed and millions at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, innovative virtual campaigns are using social media influencers, TikTok dances, video games and Zoom talks, as well as text messages and calls, to mobilize young voters.

Singers Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish and Cardi B are also encouraging them to have their say.

Eighteen to 29-year-olds represent around 20 percent of the US electorate. But just half of those eligible in that age group cast ballots when Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

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Some 63 percent of Americans aged 18-29 say they will vote in the November 3 election, up from 47 percent four years ago, according to a recent poll by Harvard University.

That surge is expected to help tip the balance in favour of 74-year-old Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden in bellwether states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona.

Sixty percent of young people surveyed in the same Harvard poll said they would vote for Biden, 77. Since most young people identify with progressive causes such as gun control and fighting climate change, Democrats generally spend more effort getting their vote than Republicans. NextGen America is a progressive group working to mobilise voters in 11 battleground states. Founded by billionaire and former candidate for the Democratic nomination Tom Steyer, it aims to reach 4.5 million people.

In Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 44,000 votes in 2016, NextGen America’s state director Larissa Sweitzer said her team has spoken to 50,000 young voters who have pledged to cast their ballots, including 22,000 who have registered since the last election.

The group has recruited 3,000 online influencers with millions of followers in battleground states. It has also organised a virtual rally on the viral video game Animal Crossing, virtual drag shows centred on LGBTQ politics and online forums on various topics.

“The Biden campaign has had to get very creative. It’s a challenge,” said Tom Bonier, CEO of polling group TargetSmart.

The creativity was highlighted this week when 31-year-old Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened an account on Twitch, a platform that broadcasts video games live, and invited young people to play with her.

Johanna Mudry of the Campus Election Engagement Project, another group mobilising student voters, says the virtual campaigns are gaining traction with a generation rarely off their cell phones.

She is mentoring 36 activists, including Rania Zakaria, a 20-year-old finance student at the University of Pennsylvania who is one of 15 million Americans to have turned 18 since the last election. Zakaria, part of the Penn Leads the Vote initiative, a non-partisan program encouraging voter engagement, says building a network of student voters hasn’t been easy due to campus quarantines.

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She says lots of students are suffering from “Zoom fatigue.” However, the isolation and loneliness that many students are feeling due to no in-person classes and a lack of campus parties may actually help fuel turnout.

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