CIRCLE Releases Race, Education, Gender Data on Youth Vote

CIRCLE has released new data on the racial, gender, and educational makeup of the 2008 youth vote. Here's a quick look at the findings:

Education gaps in turnout reported during the primaries persisted in the general election, with non-college young voters turning out at much lower rates than did their college-educated (or attending) counterparts. In the primaries, NPR reported that only 1 in 14 non-college youth voted compared to 1 in 4 college youth. CIRCLE didn't crunch that particular statistic this time, but the numbers for non-college youth are still grim, as they vastly underperformed their share of the electorate.

The takeaway here should be that, evidence to the contrary, Obama didn't have the youth vote all wrapped up - he had the college educated youth vote wrapped up. Structural barriers to participation, lack of civics education, and a lack of outreach on the part of campaigns are still keeping a significant number of Millennials away from the polls.

Regardless of their rates of participation, support for Obama was constant among Millennials of all educational backgrounds. This was a significant change from the primaries, where less educated Millennials tended to throw their support behind Hillary Clinton.

Claims of a post-racial American proved to be untrue. Even among young voters race was a significant factor in determining one's vote, and young voters admitted as much:

Young people were more likely than older people to say that candidates' race was a factor (24% versus 19% of all voters).

It should be noted, however, that Obama made extraordinary gains among young white voters compared to previous Democratic candidates, and young white voters were much more likely to vote for him than were older white voters. This was also true among young Latino voters:

Obama ran the table with young voters who were also "new voters:"

As would be expected, many young voters were first-time voters: 64% of 18-24 year-olds and 43% of 18-29 year-olds were first time voters. This compares to just 11% of all voters.

Young voters were relatively late to make up their minds: only 50% of young voters said they had made up their minds before September compared to 60% of the entire electorate.

It was speculated before the election, that this campaign would to mobilize a large number of African-American and Latino voters. Forty-five percent of 18-29 years-old African-American voters and 61% of 18-to-29 year-old Latino voters cast their ballots for the first time, compared to 37% of young white voters.

Finally, CIRCLE identifies young woman as the unsung heroes of Obama's margin among Millennials:

Young women cast 55% of the votes for the 18 to 29 age group, which was consistent with the overall trend (53% of all votes were cast by women). However, this pattern was especially strong for young African American voters, 61% of whom were women. One exception to this pattern was seen among the young voters without high school diploma. Within this group, men cast more (57%) of the votes than women (43%). This gender balance reflects the proportion in the general population for this particular group (55% males, 45% females).