The Daily Beacon’s editor-in-chief was recently invited to attend a conference on the media’s role in the 2008 election at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Political pundit James Carville said a candidate who focuses on the youth vote is called a loser. However, John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, said the candidate who focuses on the youth vote in the 2008 election will be called president.
Della Volpe cited Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana as recent beneficiaries of the youth vote.
“Obama won the youth vote by five to one in Iowa,” Della Volpe said. “Without the youth vote, he wouldn’t be where he is today.”
According to a pre-convention poll taken by the institute from July 28 to Aug. 12, Sen. Barack Obama leads the youth vote by 23 points. Della Volpe said if he could carry that difference in the election, without Sen. John McCain shaving it down, an election win would become easier for Obama.
With the New Hampshire primary, Della Volpe said that Sen. Hillary Clinton actively tried to close the gap on Obama’s lead in the young demographics. She took it down to a three-to-one margin. Della Volpe said McCain could do the same.
An institute poll said, on 10 issues and attributions, voters trust Obama more by a wide margin on national issues but less on domestic issues. The one aspect on which voters trusted McCain more was being commander-in-chief.
He said the three reasons for the increased participation are changing attitudes, mobilization and technology.
As a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Della Volpe said attitudes changed for young voters. In 1999 and 2000, youth voters told institute pollsters that the decisions in November largely did not matter, as party politics were all the same, and politicians campaigned for selfish reasons.
But after the Sept. 11 attacks, politics was relevant to the demographic. Della Volpe listed the economy as the top concern for young voters in this upcoming presidential election.
“All of a sudden they (youth voters) realized that they did not want to sit this one out,” Della Volpe said. “They didn’t want to leave the direction of this country to old people. They wanted to be engaged.”
He also mentioned how difficult it is to vote as a college student, especially those who go to college out-of-state and must seek an absentee ballot.
“There are several mechanical barriers to voting and participating if you are on college campus or you are a young person,” Della Volpe said.
He said organizations on campus help build awareness and guide voters not only through registration but also to the ballot box.
Better technology has aided campaigns as well in the search for the youth vote. With the advent of the Internet, mobilizing young voters has become inexpensive, he said. Contacting via text message, as opposed to landline or direct mail, also caused major savings in this area.
“It was not that long ago, three or four years ago in our study group, that I remember the first person talking about Facebook,” Della Volpe said. “They were kind of beta testing this new kind of social networking. That changed everything.”
Samantha Fang, junior at Harvard University, said, \"Technology has changed our worldview, and we are much more connected to the rest of the world. It is, therefore, important for our college coordinators, if they are to represent us properly, that they understand where we\'re coming from, how our definition of community has changed and how our definition of being American has changed.\"
With changing definitions come changing political labels. Fang said traditional political labels largely misrepresent youth voters, according to an institute poll that ran in 2004. The poll said 34 percent are traditional liberals, 15 percent are traditional conservatives and the remaining are either secular centrists or religious centrists.
Another institute poll said nearly two-thirds of youth voters were excited about the election. Especially enthusiastic are 83 percent of Obama voters and 56 percent of McCain voters.
"So the message is, whether on the Republican side or the Democratic side, there are probably thousands of people on your campus who want to do something," Della Volpe said. "You just have to break down the barrier a little bit and help them."