Via: huffingtonpost.com
NEW YORK — Mitt Romney lost the youth vote by a huge margin, and with it, he lost the presidency.
Sixty percent of young voters who cast ballots chose to reelect President Barack Obama, against the 36 percent who voted for Mitt Romney. That’s a six point slide in youth support for Obama from 2008, but still nearly triple the margin of victory for the youth vote that John Kerry won over George W. Bush in 2004.
An analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University found that had the youth vote been split 50-50 for the presidential race in just four states — Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia — Romney would have been elected president. In each of those four crucial swing states, exit polling shows young voters made up 16 to 19 percent of the electorate.
As the National Journal reported, Republicans counted on the youth vote to be held to just 15 or 16 percent of the electorate in order to secure a Romney victory.
Exit polls show voters ages 18 to 29 made up 19 percent of the electorate, a 1-point increase from 2008. CIRCLE estimates 22 to 23 million people between the ages of 18 and 29 nationwide voted this election.
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