Democrats are hoping an energized body of new young voters for Barack Obama will be one of the keys to victory this fall, but Wednesday afternoon’s sun-drenched event in the heart of Towson University’s campus showed the party has a way to go in turning the youth vote into electoral power.
“We haven’t completely lost hope,” said Caroline Vassighi, president of the Progressive Democrats of Towson, addressing about 250 people who crowded the shade near the sweltering Speaker’s Circle. “We’re not powerless — we’re a voting bloc. We need to make our needs clear.”
Vassighi, a Silver Spring resident, said the voter registration table was “overloaded” as students stopped by on the second day of class.
Maryland Democratic Party Chair Michael Cryor said the party had already signed up 115,000 new voters, and he hoped that voter turnout Nov. 4 would topple the previous record turnout of 1.3 million by another quarter-million voters.
Their elders far outnumber the youth vote in elections, Rep. John Sarbanes, D-3rd District, told the crowd. In his own hotly contested primary in 2006, about 30,000 people voted, and only about 350 were in the 18-24 age group.
“You’ve got a lot of heavy lifting to do to show that you matter,” Sarbanes told the students. “If you don’t turn out on Election Day, nobody’s going to listen to you.”
John Kyriakou, campus coordinator for Obama, said his group has about 40 members, and he hoped the rally “will kick start” their voter drive.
The party also is recruiting students to campaign in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Spokesman David Paulson said the party hoped any students for Obama from those states would register and vote there.
Siobhan O’Loughlin, president of the Towson Campus Green Party, reminded the crowd that not every young voter is swayed by the Democratic nominee.
As Cryor and Sarbanes spoke, O’Loughlin held up a sign that read: “Barack Obama unconventionally voted for the Patriot Act March 2, 2006.”
“A lot of Democrats strongly opposed the Patriot Act,” giving government greater access to private communications, O’Loughlin said. “We need to make [Obama] accountable” and not be swayed by his “inflating balloon of ambiguous rhetoric.”
Obama rallies are scheduled today at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Morgan State University.
