WASHINGTON - Adam Sandfoss loves to talk politics. He talks about it too much, as far as his friends are concerned.
"They tell me to shut up," said Sandfoss, 20, vice president of the Northern Kentucky University College Democrats. "My friends are probably a little bit sick of me talking about it."
His friends may not pay him much attention, but anyone running for office should. The percentage of young voters in Kentucky who have cast ballots during mid-term elections such as today's, when the office of president is not on the ballot, has risen steadily for nearly three decades. The interest in elections among young voters in Kentucky has grown while turnout among younger voters across the country has declined since 1982.
If the upward trend in Kentucky holds true this year, voters like Sandfoss could have an enormous impact on the outcome of a number of hotly contested races on the ballot today, political analysts say.
"If that trend continues, they would be much more of a force than I think almost anyone would expect," said Michael Baranowski, a political science professor at NKU. "They could be especially important if they swing decidedly one way or another."
Nationwide, turnout among voters between the ages of 18 and 29 has been falling steadily for years. In the last mid-term election in 2002, turnout among young voters across the country was 22 percent, down from 26 percent in 1994 and 32 percent in 1982, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, which tracks the political engagement of young Americans.
The numbers in Ohio mirror the decline nationwide. Turnout among young voters in the Buckeye State was 21 percent in 2002, down from 24 percent in 1994 and roughly 33 percent in 1982.
Kentucky is a different story, however. Thirty percent of young voters turned out in the Bluegrass State in 2002, up from 17 percent in 1994 and roughly 16 percent in 1978. In fact, except for a slight dip in 1994, young voter turnout has risen steadily in Kentucky since 1978, according to an analysis by the center.
Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson's office is at a loss to explain why. Grayson's office launched an initiative three years ago, along with the judicial and legislative branches of government and the state's universities, to encourage more young people to get involved in the civic process. But that would not explain the longer upward trend.
One explanation might be that counties and many communities in Kentucky tend to be smaller, which means there's a greater chance that voters might personally know someone who is on the ballot, said Grayson spokesman Les Fugate.
"That might be one reason why it would push you to go vote at a younger age," Fugate said.
In normal mid-term elections it is mostly older, hard-core partisans who go to the polls. But with so many hotly contested House and Senate races on the ballot this year, young voters have a real chance to make a difference, analysts say.
With that in mind, Web sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com) and organizations like Rock the Vote (www.rockthevote.com) are trying to engage the nation's 41.9 million eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29.
Facebook, which is popular among students and young professionals, was founded two years ago with the aim of connecting people through social networks. Now it has more than 9.5 million registered users in more than 40,000 geographic, work-related, collegiate and high school networks.
Already more than a million users are engaged in campaign issue groups or in supporting candidates, Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said.
Facebook launched its "Election 2006 network" on Sept.1 and put online 1,400 profiles of congressional and other candidates. A few weeks later it started "Election Pulse," a page that ranks candidates and tallies top campaign issues by how many supporters each has.
"Election 2006 was started to give younger voters a voice," Barker said. "They are very active with their opinions on the site."
Rock the Vote, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to building political power for young people, joined forces with Facebook in early October in an attempt to spread political awareness and register voters.
Already, the organization has registered 2,300 young people to vote through Facebook, and 12,500 Facebook members have joined Rock the Vote, said Hans Riemer, political director of Rock the Vote.
Sandfoss said he became interested in politics while a student at Bishop Brossart High School in Alexandria. Like him, a lot of other young people have developed an interest in politics because they see how it affects their lives, he said.
"I think that, in the last 10 or 15 years, young people have begun to realize their vote does matter and they do need to stand up for what they believe in," he said. "Otherwise, things are going to happen and people are going to be elected that they may not agree with.''
The war in Iraq - and the Bush administration's shifting explanations about why it was necessary - brought that point home to a lot of young people, Sandfoss said.
"When you have friends going over there, it makes you think, 'Why exactly are they going over there?'" he said. "It's just a very hard thing to deal with.''
Eric Cranley, president of the NKU College Republicans, said there usually are one or two issues every year that capture the attention of young voters. Two years ago, it was the war in Iraq and same-sex marriage. This year, illegal immigration and border security are big concerns for young Republicans, he said.
Cranley, 25, said he has always been interested in politics. "Maybe that influence was my father - he was always vocal about stuff," he said. "He'd see something on the news, and he would talk about it to me or my sisters."