Three of Chicago's five mayoral contenders participated in a youth-led candidate forum Wednesday evening focused on issues that affect the lives of young people of color in the city. Progress Illinois was there for the event.
The youth vote in Tuesday's election is reminiscent of the numbers seen in past midterm elections, according to an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, a non-partisan research center on youth engagement at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
At least 9.9 million people between the ages of 18 and 29 took part in the 2014 election. This cycle's youth vote of 21.3 percent one day post election is slightly up from 2010, when the figure was 20.4 percent.
According to the researchers, Democrats still have an advantage with young voters, despite the strong year for Republicans.
With the 2014 general election just 13 months away and voter registration numbers at an all-time low, hundreds of volunteers took to Chicagoland streets Tuesday to mark National Voter Registration Day in an effort to get as many new voters on the rolls as possible.
“Election
after election, millions of voters aren’t able to vote because they
miss voter registration deadlines or they didn’t know how to register,”
said Rebecca Reynolds, 28, executive director of Chicago Votes. “This
day is a day to try to make sure we leave no one out.”
Chicago Votes,
a volunteer-run civic engagement advocacy group, served as Illinois’
lead organization on Tuesday’s national day of action to increase voter
registration. More than 40 local groups, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, partnered with Chicago Votes to encourage residents to exercise their basic right to vote.
“Voter
registration has hit an all-time low in the city of Chicago,” said
Reynolds. “We’re trying to make voter registration easier, and more
accessible to everybody.”
Republican presidential primary candidate Jon Huntsman said it's time his
party adopt a more progressive stance on a number of issues at the
University of Chicago Thursday evening.
At the event, organized by the
university’s Institute of Politics, the former Utah governor and U.S.
ambassador to China under the Obama administration took questions from
journalist and Fox News contributor Juan Williams as well as the
audience. In his answers, Huntsman described himself as a solid
Republican, but was strongly critical of the direction his party has taken, adding that its doubtful that the GOP will find electoral success in future elections if they do not change.
“The minute we start to divorce fact and
science from our public policy debate, we are adrift,” Huntsman said.
“If Republicans are going to succeed long-term, we have to be the party
of reality.”
Voter enthusiasm among young people has appeared to have gone up
since summer, according to the findings of a recent analysis that showed
Pres. Barack Obama with a significant advantage over Republican
challenger Mitt Romney among voters under the age of 30.
In a survey of
more than 1,000 individuals between ages 18 and 29, 54 percent said in
mid-October they were “extremely likely” to vote, up from 44 percent
when the same group was asked in July, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which conducted the study.
The
number of young people that said they were either “extremely likely” or
“very likely” to vote also increased, from 60 percent in July to 67
percent last month.
The youth vote in Tuesday's election is reminiscent of the numbers seen in past midterm elections, according to an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, a non-partisan research center on youth engagement at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
With the 2014 general election just 13 months away and voter registration numbers 
Republican presidential primary candidate Jon Huntsman said it's time his
party adopt a more progressive stance on a number of issues at the
University of Chicago Thursday evening.
Voter enthusiasm among young people has appeared to have gone up
since summer, according to the findings of a recent analysis that showed
Pres. Barack Obama with a significant advantage over Republican
challenger Mitt Romney among voters under the age of 30.