younger voters

So You Think Older Voters Know What They’re Talking About?

Posted on 08/15/2012 by | Politics | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsOlder voters. What do they know? More than younger voters, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. On nearly every of a dozen questions the center posed to registered voters, people 50 and older answered correctly more often than 18- to 34-year-olds. Voters 50 and older did best in knowing basic facts about the White House and the presidential candidates. A full 87 percent, for example, could identify Joe Biden as …

A Radical Proposal to Narrow the “Turnout Gap”: Make Voting Compulsory

Posted on 05/11/2012 by | Politics | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsIt’s hardly news that younger people are much less likely to go to the polls than older people. Just 48.5 percent of all 18- to 24-year-old Americans voted in the 2008 presidential election, for example, compared with 72.6 percent of those 65 and older. That’s a “turnout gap” of more than 24 percent. It’s much the same in many other countries, including England. According to the London-based Institute for Public Policy Research, just 44 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in …