Tuning in: young voters are showing intense interest in this year's presidential election. But will they show up at the polls?

• Author: Egan, Timothy
• Position: National

Four years ago, the presidential election did not even reach the level of white noise for Marie Reyes. She had bigger concerns--like, just about anything other than what Al Gore and George W. Bush were talking about. "There was nothing in that election that I felt even remotely related to my life," says Reyes, who is 22.

But now, even with a full college class load, a baby, and a part time job, she spends nearly 20 hours a week in Albuquerque, N.M., her hometown, trying to get other young people to register to vote.

What changed Reyes was not just the issues--terrorism, the Iraq war, and college costs, she says--but simple math: Out of the more than 100 million Americans who cast ballots in 2000, the race came down to a smattering of votes in a few states.

"It hit me the same way it hits other people when I tell them: New Mexico was decided by 366 votes--I mean, that's how many people I expect to register, because I think I can do 300 easy," Reyes says.

Reyes is part of the clipboard army scouring malls, public squares, concerts, county fairs, and schools this year in search of young, unregistered voters.

After a dismal turnout by young voters in 2000, surveys this year show that interest in the election among the young is near the highest level since ratification of the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971. And state election officials say registration of new young voters is coming in at levels they have not seen in years.

Polls this spring and summer by the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center, and MTV all found young people planning to vote at a rate that would far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago. The pool of potential young voters is substantial--about 41 million Americans ages 18 to 29, or one in five eligible voters.

'THERE'S A REAL BUZZ'

"This is a bigger group than 50- to 65-year olds," says Carrie Donovan, the youth director at the University of Maryland's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which has studied the youth vote. "It seems like so much of it is influenced by the kind of buzz that's out there, and this year, there's a real buzz."

The effort to register more young voters is taking place amid a larger campaign by both Democrats and Republicans to register new voters, especially in battleground states like Ohio and Florida. The drives have resulted in record numbers of voters being added to the rolls in many jurisdictions.

The political parties are aided by outside groups, both partisan and nonpartisan, which are spending millions of dollars in voter-registration drives. Democrats working for Senator John Kerry insist the pool of new young voters is swinging their way. But Republicans working to re-elect President Bush are doing their own registration drives through college Republican groups, and they say the youth vote is still up for grabs.

Young voters, who were split evenly between Gore and Bush in 2000, are notoriously fickle, according to those who study them. But their votes could make a difference in tight races. In Wisconsin, for example, where the 2000 election was decided by 5,708 votes, more...