Vote Fever Sweeps through CU Campus

[Memekiller]

Source: Colorado Daily

http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2008/oct/27/vote-fever-sweeps-cu-campus/

To win here, Obama will need a significant chunk of the new voters he's registered to turn up at the polls -- and, as of right now, more of those voters are under 30 than over 60.

If a random selection of students on the University of Colorado campus is any indication, Obama is sitting pretty.

Of the more than 20 students we talked to, every one of them said they either had voted or planned to vote. Only a few knew someone personally who was not planning to vote -- and, from the sound of it, they take a lot of heat for it.



Dustin Manley, a math major in the ROTC, said he voted because "people chase you down if you don't."

"You don't see this so much now that it's gotten cold, but, a few weeks ago, every 100 feet, there was a booth with some group asking if you voted," said Jake Partin, an active duty Marine.



Others are savoring the chance to vote -- not just by mail, but in person on Nov. 4.

"Oh, my God, yes," said physics major Erin MacDonald when asked if she plans to vote.

McDonald said she won't vote early because she wants to have the experience of voting on Election Day.


Read more: http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2008/oct/27/vote-fever-sweeps-cu-campus/

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It appears as though there is going to be no problem turning out the youth vote in Colorado, if this story is any indication.

[msongs]

1. Bogus headline on the orignal article - 20 students hardly indicates "Vote fever..." lol nt

[Memekiller]

2. How many should they talk to?

[BulletproofLandshark]

3. It's called a sampling.

Did you really expect them to sweep the entire campus?

[strategery blunder]

4. Still, the sample should have been larger.

I know a college campus is a comparatively small population compared to polling a state or a country, but the sample size should have been a MINIMUM of 30 to be even statistically viable, preferably more around 100.

I know there's some formula to calculate margin of error but I don't recall it, but I do recall that 30 was pretty much the minimum for the formula to even be valid.

[Memekiller]

5. Not a poll

I don't think these kinds of stories are meant to be scientific. It's just a reporter heading out and randomly grabbing people.

[BobTheSubgenius]

7. I take your point....

.....and even know somewhat more than the basics about statistics, but I find one thing striking - the 100% result. I know that trying to draw a conclusion from this anecdote is not totally valid, but I DO infer a lot of significance from 100%.

[Robbien]

6. I expect the fever part is referring to people tracking you down if you haven't voted yet

Ha. So great to see this level of enthusiasm.

It is the same at Indiana University. Went down there one day last week and it was hard to take a step without someone stopping and asking if we voted..

[Bandit]

8. But yet according to the Rachel Maddow Show last night, early voting

in Colorado is down from 2004 so far, and is down in Ohio and Florida from 2004. I keep hearing about all the long lines but that is because of the shortage of voting booths and locations not a major increase in people..This is worrying to me because everyone counted so heavily on the youth vote in 2004 and they didn't show up..