KEY POINTS:
BOSTON - Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energised by the Iraq war, pollsters said yesterday.
About 24 per cent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Wednesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up four percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.
"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Centre for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls. "Unfortunately, we can't say if it's a record because we don't have good comparable data before 1986."
Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favoured Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.
"The turnout was awesome," said 21-year-old Katryn Fraher, a political science major at the University of New Mexico.
But despite the big turnout, it may not be a record. In the 1982 mid-term election, youth turnout reached 27 per cent, but that was among voters aged between 18 and 24 instead of under 30 as measured by yesterday's exit poll estimates.
Republican pollster Ed Goeas said young voters could have swayed a number of tight races, noting that of 28 seats Democrats picked up from Republicans in the 435-member House of Representatives, 22 were won by less than 2 per cent of the vote and 18 were won by just 5000 votes or less.
"The increase in the youth vote did come into play," he said.
As Republicans fought to keep control of Congress, both parties sought to rally young voters, who turned out in record numbers in the 2004 presidential election.
Kelly Dolan, 24, said: "The only way we can make politicians pay attention to people our age is if we turn out in record numbers."
A poll by Harvard University's Institute of Politics last week showed that by a three-to-one margin, young Americans said the country was on the "wrong track". Forty-six per cent favoured a total troop withdrawal from Iraq within a year.
Future elections could also be at stake. The "Generation Y" of Americans born from 1977 to 1994 - shaped by the September 11 attacks, the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina - in nine years will make up a third of the electorate.
Voice of youth
* 24 per cent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million people, voted.
* It was the largest number of young voters in at least 20 years in congressional elections.
* Young voters favoured Democrats by a 22-point margin.
* That was nearly three timesthe margin Democrats earned among other age groups, dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.
- REUTERS
