Young voters make MTV’s 2004 election dreams reality

Fri., Nov. 5, 2004

Associated Press

MTV’s “Choose or Lose 2004” announced Wednesday that according to final national exit polls and early vote tallies, an estimated 21 million 18- to 30-year-olds voted in the 2004 presidential election, according to an analysis provided by CIRCLE Research.

The young adult vote in 2004 shows a sharp increase when compared to the nearly 18 million 18- to 30-year- old’s votes cast in the 2000 presidential election.

Key battleground states saw a marked increase in young voter turnout with one out of every five voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin younger than 30.

“People cannot overlook the fact that young adults were energized, activated and informed in 2004,” said Ian Rowe, vice president of MTV Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships. “Our goal with ‘Choose or Lose’ all year was 20 Million LOUD!, and the youth vote certainly did not disappoint with all signs pointing to more than 20.9 million 18- to 30-year-old voters.”

Throughout the year, MTV devoted an unprecedented amount of air time to the issues that matter most to young voters, including the war on terror, education, Iraq, jobs, sexual politics and more.

“Choose or Lose” also declared a takeover of MTV on Election Day with live news segments and two separate live broadcasts featuring the latest in campaign news, appearances by P. Diddy and Rosario Dawson, and reports from MTV News corres-

pondents Gideon Yago, John Norris, Sway Calloway and SuChin Pak from around the country.

Originally launched in 1992, “Choose or Lose” is MTV’s pro-social campaign to inform young adults about the political process, voice their most urgent political concerns, compel leading presidential candidates to address those concerns, and mobilize massive numbers of young adults ages 18 to 30 to register and vote.

20 Million LOUD! is a national campaign of hundreds of organ-

izations, including MTV, that worked to mobilize more than 20 million young adults to vote and be a deciding factor in the 2004 presidential election.