It seems that as much as the media would like us to believe that young people are voting in droves, that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

According to politico.com, a website dedicated to the 2008 presidential election, young voter turnout rose for every state that was involved in Super Tuesday except New York, but it still lagged behind every other age group.

“If you look at the demographics, ages 18 – 30 have the lowest voter turn out than any other population,” Lance Widman, political science professor, said.

“I hate to sound cynical, but all this media hype is much ado about nothing,” he said.

Still that hasn’t stopped youth-oriented campaigns from being launched.

“Rock the Vote” is still encouraging young people to register to vote.

MTV has partnered up with MySpace and has hosted a series of presidential debates aimed at informing young people on the political issues and presidential candidates.

“Voting is not high on young people’s to-do list. They’re busy with trying to keep up with school, work and friends. Voting just isn’t important,” Widman said.

It also seems that young voters may be apathetic about their role in the democratic process.

“I don’t think my vote will change anything; that’s why I haven’t paid any attention to (the media coverage),” Craig Hazelwood, fire technology science major, said.

Other young people just find politics boring and complicated.

“I don’t pay attention to politics; it’s not my thing,” Fernando Santiago, undecided major, said.

These students are not out of the norm; most people in their age group will simply not follow politics.

“I asked my students (on the first week of class) if they had voted on Super Tuesday and maybe 10 to 20 percent of them raised their hands,” Widman said.

“I haven’t seen anything that makes me believe that young people care about this upcoming election,” he said.

There is hope, though, that young people will care, because the 2008 presidential election will be one for the record books.

“I think young people do care about the election. The (presidential candidates) are really reaching out to young voters,” Catey Kennedy, nursing major, said.

What could perhaps rouse even more interest for this election is that for the first time ever, American citizens could potentially vote for a female (Hillary Clinton) or a black president.

“(Barack) Obama is a charismatic figure who has generated some interest.”

“If John McCain is nominated (for the Republican ticket) and Obama is nominated (for the Democratic ticket) that could generate some buzz that might drive some young people to vote, since they are such polar opposites,” Widman said.

“I mean, here you have Obama, who is in his 40s and McCain, who is practically 120,” he said.

It seems we might see the true interest and power of young voters as we get closer to the presidential election in November.

“This election is totally unique, so the media is just in overdrive covering it.”

“If the media could somehow top itself in coverage, maybe the voter turnout will be higher, but we have to wait until November to find out,” Widman said.