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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 5 noveMber 2018

Parkland survivors vote for 1st time, months after massacre

By KELLI KENNEDY and MIKE the moment that young turnout in the last midterm
SCHNEIDER people are going to make elections was the lowest
Associated Press the difference in this coun- since World War II.
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Nine try." "It's really about tying it
months after 17 classmates Corin, who voted along back to gun violence or ty-
and teachers were gunned with her dad at an early ing it back to immigration
down at their Florida polling site on her 18th or whatever that person is
school, Parkland students birthday, visited a half-doz- passionate about," Corin
are finally facing the mo- en cities in just a handful of said. "I've used that tactic
ment they've been leading days last week, getting up so many times and it has
up to with marches, school at 3 a.m. to board planes. actually worked."
walkouts and voter-regis- It has been a whirlwind for It remains to be seen what
tration events throughout the students, with celebrity role the youth vote will play
the country: their first Elec- support from Oprah to Kim in this year's midterms.
tion Day. In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, David Hogg, center, a Kardashian, a Time maga- The 30-and-under crowd
The Marjory Stoneman student who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shoot- zine cover, late night TV is more likely to vote in this
Douglas High School stu- ing walks with volunteers to a polling place on campus during spots and book deals — year's midterms than in
a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in
dent activists set their sights Orlando, Fla. but all of it misses their main the past. Forty percent say
on the 4 million U.S. citizens Associated Press target unless it motivates they'll vote, compared to
turning 18 this year. They're students to cast ballots by just 26 percent in 2014, ac-
hoping to counteract the David Hogg, postponed "It is kind of the culmination the end of Tuesday. cording to a new poll by In-
voter apathy that's espe- college plans to mobi- of everything we've been At a University of Central stitute of Politics at Harvard
cially prevalent among the lize young voters. Many of working for," said senior Florida event during the fi- University's Kennedy School
youth during midterm elec- them support gun reform, Jaclyn Corin, one of the nal week of election cam- of Government. They're be-
tions. Many of the activists, in the name of their fallen founders of the March For paigning, Stoneman Doug- ing pushed, in part, by a
now household names like classmates. Our Lives group. "This is truly las graduate and current strong disapproval of Presi-
UCF student Bradley Thorn- dent Donald Trump.
ton escorted fellow stu- Trends in Florida's early
dents to the campus' early voting suggest a surge in
voting site. UCF student young voters.
Tiffany McKelton said she Of the 124,000 people
wouldn't have voted if the aged 18 to 29 who had vot-
Parkland activists hadn't ed in person at early poll-
shown up on campus. ing stations as of Thursday,
"I've never voted in a pri- nearly a third did not vote
mary election. I actually in the presidential election
did it because of them," in 2016, according to anal-
said McKelton, a psychol- ysis by University of Florida
ogy major from West Palm political science professor
Beach. Daniel Smith. About half
In the past months they've of those new voters were
boarded countless buses newly registered.
and planes, passed out T "There are newly energized
shirts, and hosted BBQs and voters who sat out in 2016,
dance parties on college or have registered since
campuses around the U.S. then, who are turning out.
Thornton said talking things There's no question about
through often does the that," Smith said.
trick. In contrast, for people 65
"I can't tell you how many and older who had voted
conversations I've had that early and in person, about
were like, 'Ah, I'm not inter- 7 percent didn't vote in
ested' ... and through just 2016.
a simple, really nice cor- Matt Deitsch dropped out
dial conversation, they get of college after the Feb.
this magical inspiration to 14 shooting at Stoneman
vote," Thornton said. Douglas to help start March
Corin said she's encoun- For Our Lives alongside his
tered plenty of voter apa- younger siblings, Parkland
thy along the way. The stu- survivors Ryan Deitsch and
dents often note that voter Samantha Deitsch.q