TEEN POWER POLITICS.

• Author: PARELLO, NANCY

THE YOUTH VOTE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN MINNESOTA LAST YEAR. WILL IT MATTER IN THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? EVERYONE BORN BY NOVEMBER 8, 1982, WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT IN 2000.

Something really weird happened in Minnesota last year.

No one is saying it's a trend, at least not yet, but it could influence the next Presidential election and change the role of young people in politics in the 21st century.

First, a former professional wrestler called Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor. Ventura, a motorcycle-riding, cigar-chomping, former talk-radio host, ran as an independent, stressing his image as a no-holds-barred political rebel. Second (and this is the really weird part), he won at least partly because of a strong showing among young voters, who are often too turned off to vote at all.

"Jesse Ventura attracted more than 50 percent of the youth vote," says Seth Maitlins, president of Rock the Vote, a Culver City, California, organization that encourages 18-to-24-year-olds to get involved in politics. In a three-way race, 50 percent is considered a landslide.

Whatever you may think of Ventura, he struck many young voters as a "compelling alternative," says Maitlins. "Young people felt he was more likely to best represent their interests."

The reason that's important now is that the 2000 Presidential election is expected to be extremely close. If young people vote in large numbers next year, they could sway the election. And who knows what would happen then?

WHAT POLITICIANS THINK

At the moment, however, no one is terribly worried about a political takeover by the nation's youth. That's because politicians know--or think they know--that young people don't vote.

The evidence backs them up.

In 1971, 18-year-olds won the right to vote with the passage of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. Since then, young people have consistently ranked as the lowest-voting age group.

In the 1996 Presidential election, when President Clinton was re-elected, only 30 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds bothered to vote. That means 5.1 million 18- and 19-year-olds sat it out.

President Clinton won the popular vote by only 8.2 million--not many more votes than there are eligible teen voters. In one of the closest Presidential elections ever, Democrat John E Kennedy defeated Republican Richard M. Nixon in 1960 by a margin of only 119,450 votes.

Young voters can make an even greater impact in smaller, state or local races. The 3 million...