The Garfield Institute for Public Leadership at Hiram College released its most recent poll in its ongoing “Listening to Young Voters” initiative. The poll found President Barack Obama leading former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney 50 to 37 percent among young voters ages 18 to 29 years old.
Hiram College professor Jason Johnson discussed the poll with the Cleveland Plain Dealer for the story “Young voters still favor President Obama, but support has eroded, poll finds“:
Political Scientist Jason Johnson, who heads the college’s year-long “Listening to Young Voters” project, says young voters are disappointed that Obama hasn’t solved nation’s problems over the past four years, but aren’t convinced that Romney will do any better.
He anticipates the lack of enthusiasm will depress that group’s high voter participation from 2008. The 22 million young voters who showed up at the polls that year represented the third highest turnout in that demographic since 1972, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, a Tufts University analysis found.
“Young people are not going to turn out with the same level of enthusiasm as they did in 2008,” says Johnson, whose poll of 600 registered voters conducted between June 5 and 12 had a 4 percent margin of error. “When they see these two options side by side, they are not thrilled.”