(Web Desk) – As the US elections are around the corner, the importance of young voters - between the ages of 18 and 29 years - and their power to tilt the elections in anyone’s favour cannot be overestimated.
The participation of young voters in the election cycle has increased significantly over the years.
In the 2024 election, about 42 million young voters will be eligible to cast their votes. A person of 18 years or above can cast ballot in the US election.
In the seven battleground states of significance — Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — about 7.8 million young voters are eligible to vote in this fall’s election.
As of 2022, there were almost 161 million registered voters in the United States.
As expected, youth prefers a candidate who gives a policy outline on issues such as environmental change and student loans.
According to Statista - a German-based platform that specialises in data gathering - in the 2020 presidential election, about 55 percent of voters aged between 18 and 29 years participated in the election.
This was a huge rise from the previous polls cycle. As in the 2016 election, about 44 percent of youths (almost 23.7 million) in the same age bracket voted in the election.
In 2012, the youth tunrout was 45 percent while in the year 2008, it was around 51 percent.
The highest youth turnout dates back to 1972 when 55.4 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 years voted in the election.
Party Preference
Democratic party: Young people have historically sided with the Democrats. In 2020, it reached almost 61 percent.
Republican party: It got a relatively less support from the young blood. It remained 37 percent in 2012 and 2016 polls. In 2020, 36 percent young voters supported the red party.