DESPITE WHAT THE PUNDITS TRIED TO MAKE US BELIEVE, THE YOUTH VOTE DID TURN OUT BIG IN 2004

An awful lot of work and resources was put into turning out young and first-time voters in the run up to the 2004 presidential election. The next day the right wing soon had the whole mainstream media echoing its message that the effort failed and that young people didn't turn out. Scott Goodstein, the hardworking and diligent Executive Director of Punk Voter told me they were lying. And now, a year later, the truth is starting to come out. This week Ron Fournier and Stephen Ohlemacher did a story for A.P. about how voting among young people surged in 2004. "Turns out," they start, "the kids rocked after all. Nearly half of all eligible young voters cast ballots in the November 2004 election, raising their turnout rate by more than twice any other age group." And, it turned out that Kerry won 56% of all voters between 18-24 (the neo-fascist clown got 43%).

"This is big," said David King, associate director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University who highlighted the Census Bureau findings in an IOP report Wednesday. "When you vote young, you're much more likely to vote the rest of your life, so the 2004 campaign turned a generation on to politics... The 2004 campaign itself was an immense mobilizing event, bringing out the largest percent of young voters in 32 years."