They were told if they did not vote they would lose or even die,but young voters still were not motivated to go to the polls onNov. 2.
According to the Associated Press, the youth vote in the 2004presidential election was the same as in the 2000 presidentialelection. The youth vote accounted for about 17 percent of thevoter turnout in the last two elections. But the national voterturnout of all voters increased, which in turn means the youth voteincreased too.
National voter rally groups such as Vote or Die, Choose or Loseand Rock the Vote and local groups such as Cox’s Voices for Votesand LSU’s Project Geaux seemed not to have much effect on youngvoters.
Rusty Jabour, public affairs manager for Cox Communications inBaton Rouge, said Voices for Votes does not yet know the extent oftheir impact, but they hope they had a part in the overall highlevel of absentee voting in Louisiana.
According to The Advocate, Louisiana absentee voting hit arecord high. Of the 2.9 million voters in Louisiana, 115,592 voterscast ballots early compared to the 40,000 absentee ballots castfour years ago.
Jabour said Voices for Votes will continue to have a presence inBaton Rouge during and between elections. He said they think theirprogram was well received and realized the problem of low youthvoting will not be solved immediately.
Jessica Stewart, Project Geaux coordinator, said members felttheir efforts on campus were a success. She said they registered1,200 people and assisted almost 300 people in absentee voting. Shesaid they also educated students and had shuttles for East BatonRouge Parish voters to vote absentee.
Stewart said Project Geaux is evaluating the role it will playin future elections. She said LSU was the only SEC school assistingstudent voters to this capacity.
Robert Hogan, a political science professor, said the groupsmade a limited difference among voter turnout.
Although the groups do motivate young voters, Hogan said they donot remove the many barriers young voters face, such asregistration and absentee problems.
Lawrence Cutrone, a communication studies junior, said he madefun of the national voter rally groups because he knew they werepartial toward Sen. John Kerry.
Cutrone said he did not think the groups made a difference toyoung voters.
Contrary to Cutrone, Lori Barber, a mass communication senior,thinks the voter rally groups affected young voters. She said thegroups increased youth voter awareness, but did not get them to thepolls.
Barber said the groups made students more interested and createdconversation between students, but is unsure why they did notaffect youth voter turnout.
Alex Placzek, a mechanical engineering sophomore, said thegroups only affected undecided voters.
Placzek said he did not pay much attention to the groups becausethey made no difference to him.