Only eight states in the U.S. have more young people (age 18-29) registered to vote than back in 2020 on election day. That's according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. 

What You Need To Know

  • In Ohio, the number of 18 to 29-year-olds registered to vote now is 28% less than it was in November of 2020 
  • Experts say 2020 was a high year for young voter engagement with almost 50% of people age 18-29 actually turning out to vote due in part to the pandemic and use of absentee ballots 
  • Experts believe Democrats are targeting young women through the use of social media and celebrities
  • They also believe Republicans are targeting young men by use of a masculine image and appealing to the need to develop a sense of purpose

The number of 18 to 29-year-olds registered to vote in Ohio now is 28% less than in November 2020.

“That was up 11 or 12% compared to 2016, and so I'm not sure we're going to see the same heights as we did in 2020," said Mark Caleb Smith, professor of political science and the director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University.

While many got absentee ballots, he said “those policies aren't necessarily in place now because we're not dealing with a COVID-related election."

He added that, while younger voters don’t turn out like older voters due to more disruptions like moving or having a child that complicates the process of voting, “they overcome them to some degree, like they have sometimes in the past. But I think the trend is probably going to hold, I mean, older voters generally show up more, younger voters a little less."

Regardless, Smith is seeing something else play out in this year’s election cycle with young voters. That is the two parties targeting voters based on gender.

“I think the evidence is starting to come out that the Republican Party is doing a deliberate effort to appeal to young men, young white men in particular, but not exclusively. The Democratic party is doing a really fair job, I think, of appealing to young women,” Smith said.

That includes the use of social media and celebrities with young female voters.

“With the Republicans and young men, they're using that very masculine image, Donald Trump and JD Vance, to try to appeal to sort of the sense of purpose that young men need to develop, and I think that message is actually resonating in some quarters, and so I suspect that gender gap we're looking at is only going to continue to get larger," he said.