Discuss “Election 2008: Second-largest youth voter turnout in American history”

Several hundred Carnegie Mellon students gathered in Rangos Ballroom on Tuesday night to watch election night coverage and weather the final hours before Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American president of the United States. But the election of 2008 was historic for another reason — students who cast a vote in Tuesday’s presidential election (or mailed in an absentee ballot) were part of the largest ever group in their age bracket to support a single candidate, and the second largest youth voter movement in American history.

Between 22 and 24 million young Americans ages 18–29 voted, resulting in an estimated youth voter turnout (the percentage of eligible voters who actually cast a vote) of between 49.3 and 54.5 percent,...