 "Photo: Peter Gallagher")
With just over a week remaining until the biggest day thus far of the 2008 primary season, there is very little indication of which candidate holds the edge. On Feb. 5, 22 states will be up for grabs on the Democratic side and 20 for the Republicans, among them California, New York, and Massachusetts.
In past elections, each party has featured a clear-cut favorite by the time "Super Tuesday" rolled around, but coming off the heels of Barack Obama's rout in South Carolina, the election picture is as murky as it was leading up to the Iowa Caucuses.
In the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) leads Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) 230 delegates to 152. Former Massachusetts Governor (Ariz.) Mitt Romney leads Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.) on the Republican side. However, Obama and McCain both possess the momentum necessary to pull off an upset heading into the upcoming primaries, which can be attributed in part to the unusually large turnout of young voters.
"While the 2000 election was relatively quiet, the 2004 election was not quiet," said Dennis Hale, undergraduate director of Boston College's political science department. "There was an increased participation by young people on both sides of the aisle - both among conservative students and liberal students, and I suspect that there will be even more of that this time."
According to a poll by Reuters assessing the New Hampshire primary, 43 percent of eligible voters under the age of 30 participated in the balloting, up from 28 percent in 2000 and just 18 percent in the 2004 election.
In 2004 in New Hampshire, the under-30 vote count came in at 30,800; this year it was nearly triple that number at 84,200.
"Judging by the turnout so far, there's a lot of interest in this campaign. The primaries have seen a pretty high turnout compared to presidential primaries in the past. So yes, there's a lot more interest across the board and that includes young people," Hale said.
Hale attributed this increase in attention to the fact that for the first time since 1952, there is not an incumbent president or vice president who is seeking to remain in the White House, thus leaving the presidential field wide open.
Students at BC are certainly no exception to the rule. Last semester, over 100 people attended a mock presidential debate that was co-sponsored by the BC Republicans and the BC Democrats.
On the way out, coordinators polled the attendees on who they would vote for in the election.
"It shows that kids are already thinking of who they're going to vote for - who's going to be the best candidate," said Alexandra Saieh, one of the directors of the group BC for Barack Obama and A&S '09.
Over the past months, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College has held multiple voter registration drives around campus, and has also helped to distribute absentee ballot information to students.
People have also been getting involved outside of campus as well, with many students' campaigning at the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Saieh, who went to New Hampshire over Christmas break with 15 other BC students, described the opportunity to get involved in a campaign as "one of the most exciting experiences because everyone's so enthusiastic."
Saieh and other club members went door to door trying to encourage people to get out and vote, sometimes returning to certain residences multiple times to get people to the polls.
Prior to election day, they were working the phone lines, taking an active role in garnering support for their candidate.
"People our age are going out and canvassing and encouraging others to vote. Already we see kids getting inspired to go out and take an active role in this election," Saieh said.
This past Friday, several BC students campaigned for Obama along Commonwealth Avenue, holding up signs and banners as the evening commuters were driving home from work.
Other activities involve working with members of the nearby communities, as well as local elected officials who have endorsed Obama, urging them to keep showing support.
The importance of the upcoming election is certainly not lost on BC students, many of whom will be entering the working world at some point during the next presidential term.
In the past, rather than aiming at individual votes and collecting delegates, candidates have focused more of their attention on winning the major states.
But as evidenced from the Nevada primary, a candidate does not necessarily have to win the state to accumulate more delegates than their opponents.
Candidates are shifting their focus to the individual voting districts, which makes the youth participation in the vote all the more significant in determining who will be on the ballots in the fall.
And options remain for those students still looking to get involved in a campaign.
"All they've got to do is make a phone call," Hale said. "All these campaigns will be looking for free labor as the primary gets closer. So I wouldn't think that anybody who wanted to work for a campaign would find it too difficult to do that. They would be doing the lowest level of work, but it's exciting - it's a foot in the door. It would give them a chance at least to see a little bit what a campaign is like from the inside. It's exciting - especially in the couple of weeks just before the primary."
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