Will youth be served in Tuesday's election?

LACONIA — Vanessa Calabrese is trying to get college students to vote in the midterm election on Tuesday and she’s not above putting on her flying squirrel costume to make it happen.

She is one of 37 people with NextGen New Hampshire who have been canvassing on 18 college campuses, encouraging students to go to the polls. They have knocked on 35,000 doors, sent more than 27,000 texts and placed countless telephone calls.

NextGen America has targeted 11 states. It has registered 257,000 people to vote, a total that doesn’t include New Hampshire, where registration is done in advance with municipal clerks or at polling places on election day. The organization was founded originally as NextGen Climate by businessperson and philanthropist Tom Steyer in 2013.

Calabrese, 25, has been in charge of the get-out-the-vote effort at Plymouth State University, where she and other workers donned Halloween costumes.

“We do a reverse trick or treat by passing out candy to people when we are door knocking,” she said. “People are more approachable when you are in a big blow-up dinosaur costume. I was in my flying squirrel costume.”

Voting rules

They tell people that if they are over 18, a U.S. citizen and domiciled in New Hampshire, including living on or off campus, they are entitled to vote. The group will also be giving rides to the polls on election day.

“We ask people to sign a pledge card to vote, we do a brief survey and we talk about a couple issues they may care about,” she said.

About 18,000 people have signed such pledges in New Hampshire, where the group has spent $1 million on efforts to encourage young people to vote.

One Plymouth State student planning to cast a ballot is Annmarie Hall, 25. She is working on her master’s degree in school counseling.

“In the code of ethics for school counselors, we are encouraged to advocate on behalf of our students and to be part of things that affect our students,” Hall said. “And just in general I want to be part of it and want to make that difference and see the changes I think will be best.”

Younger students

Hall has voted before, but for many young people, this will be their first time in a voting booth.

That will be the case for Bryden Wright and Destiny Ling, both 18-year-old Laconia High School seniors.

Wright said he is on the “conservative end of things” and doesn’t like the tone of current political discourse.

“I read old documents from the Founding Fathers,” he said. “There really isn’t anything better than Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson and the rest.”

President Trump

Wright has mixed feelings about President Donald Trump.

“I don’t see him as a thought leader,” Wright said. “He’s more just a guy in office right now who sometimes passes laws that I like and sometimes says really stupid stuff.”

Ling said she thinks of herself as an independent voter who falls on the Democratic side of the political spectrum.

“I’m actually really excited to vote,” she said. “I was primarily influenced by the Never Again movement.”

That movement grew out of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students and staff were killed by a 19-year-old former student armed with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle.

“The kids made a movement for change and the platform includes getting our generation to vote,” Ling said. “I see ridiculous things that politicians are saying and I wanted my voice to be heard.

“I want change and we need new faces, younger people who can relate to our generation. Too many people talk about the problem but don’t make a difference.”

NextGen boosts Democrats

The NextGen group favors Democratic candidates.

In a news release, the group said it is “working to engage and organize young voters across the state to make Chris Sununu a one-term Governor, defend New Hampshire’s Democrat held Congressional seats, and flip control of the state legislature.”

Teddy Smyth, NextGen’s New Hampshire youth director, said young voters played a critical role in the 2016 election, in which Hillary Clinton carried the state by 2,736 votes. He said turnout in Durham alone increased by 2,191 “as a result of NextGen’s work to organize and turnout young voters.”

Also, Democrat Maggie Hassan won her U.S. Senate race by just 1,017 votes.

“There is no doubt that if it weren’t for young people, both of those races would have swung the other way,” Smyth said.

Close races

Dante Scala, an associate political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, said NextGen’s efforts could make a difference in close races this election, such as the contest in the state’s 1st Congressional District between Republican Eddie Edwards and Democrat Chris Pappas.

“In the 1st District you have the city of Manchester, which has UNH students, Saint Anselm College, Southern New Hampshire University is nearby and there’s UNH Durham,” he said.

“The problem of getting young people out to vote is a difficult thing to crack. One big problem is getting them registered in the first place. Once you get them registered, they are far more likely to vote.”

He said young people could prove valuable for the Democratic Party.

“Young women in particular are more likely to be voting Democratic this time,” Scala said. “Young men are more ambivalent toward the president, but young women are pronounced in their opposition.”

Scala said one thing organizers must contend with is the fact that young people are more likely to vote in presidential elections than in the midterms.

Also, according to a U.S. Census report, older Americans generally vote at higher rates than younger Americans. In 2016, people 65 and older had a 70.9 percent turnout rate, compared to 66.6 for those 45 to 64, 58.7 for those 30-44 and 46.1 percent for those 18-29.

For more information about voting as a college student:

http://sos.nh.gov/CollegeStudent.aspx