BATTLEGROUND YOUTH Of the 11 states up for grabs in the 2012 electon, the youth vote
played the largest role in Iowa, Montana and North Carolina in 2008.
IA
PERCENTAGE
OF VOTERS AGE
18-29, 2008
10%
8%
7%
6%
NH
7%
OH
10%
9%
PA
9%
NV
8%
AZ
9%
CO
8%
MO
10%
VA
NC
9%
9%
6%
FL
COMPILED BY TIMOTHY WALLACE/THE HUFFINGTON POST; MAP SOURCE: CIRCLE ANALYSIS OF U.S. CENSUS DATA
7%
ELECTORAL VOTES
interest rates on student loans.
“It definitely makes me view
him in a more favorable light,”
he says.
This is precisely the sort of
issue the Obama campaign is
counting on to produce support
from young people. Kal Penn,
the actor famous for his roles
in the Harold & Kumar movies
— classics of the stoner genre
— toured campuses to drum up
votes for Obama in 2008, and
has been doing so again in recent months. Students are unhappy about all sorts of things,
he says, from the job market to
the high costs of college, but
they grasp that Obama has been
laboring to address these problems, while encountering grief
from Republicans.
“They have been frustrated
about the same things that I’ve
been frustrated about, and that
the president has been frustrated about, and that’s the
pace of change,” says Penn.
“The conversation about what
has not happened in Congress
is a lively one.”
But even if young voters are
NEVADA
6
ARIZONA
11
COLORADO
9
IOWA
6
MISSOURI
10
OHIO
18
PENSYLVANIA 20
VIRGINIA
13
NORTH CAROLINA 15
FLORIDA
29
NEW HAMPSIRE 4