Organizing for America | Kim Ahern's Blog: The Hidden Souls in the Obama Army

The Hidden Souls in the Obama Army

By Kim Ahern - Oct 3rd, 2007 at 8:54 pm EDT

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Throughout the past Presidential cycles, almost every Democratic candidate has espoused that they would be the one to capture the ever elusive “youth vote.” Ah, the youth vote, but what exactly does that mean? Essentially, this is the voting bloc of young voters that will come to candidate’s events and join Facebook groups – but when it comes to actually getting to the polls on Election Day, they just don’t show up, or at least until now they have not.

Barack Obama is the candidate that will bring these voters out on Election Day, according to a recent memo by campaign manager David Plouffe. These hidden souls in the Obama Army, recently feature in a Nation article are Obama’s (not so) secret weapon. Recent National polling numbers continue to show Hillary Clinton jumping into the lead. The key issue here is, how are these polls conducted? Traditional polling surveys use landlines to conduct their polls. Now – how many high school seniors or college students that you know have landlines? None, Plouffe’s point exactly! Obama’s hidden army are these first time primary voters, that are not showing up on voting lists and do not have land lines. Although it is important to note Senator Obama just jumped ahead in the Iowa polls!

Ok, even if the above assumption is accepted as true that still does not guarantee these voters will come out on Election Day, or does it? Even taking conservative estimates, the young voter bloc (18 – 30 year olds) have been increasing in voting in both the 2004 and 2006 elections and will make up approximately ¼ of the overall voting population in the 2008 election. Hence, the votes are out there and the Obama Campaign is going to get them!

The Obama Campaign is reaching out to young voters like no other campaign has in history. Students for Barack Obama, once a Facebook group, were immediately made into the campaign's official student wing. Senator Obama is holding innovative and inspiring fundraisers throughout the country focused solely on students, such as the packed crowd at Boston University last spring, where supporters paid a mere $23 dollars to hear Obama speak. Another great example of how the campaign is reaching out to students is by including the hundreds of college chapters across the country in important canvassing tools such as using an innovative database to allow the individual chapters to canvass right on their own campuses! The Obama Campaign is truly demonstrating their commitment to students and this will transform into votes. On Election Day, not only will that ever-elusive youth vote actually come out, but they will be proud supporters of Senator Obama as the Joshua generation leads our country to a better tomorrow.

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