STAMFORD, Conn., November 3, 2004 – Smackdown Your Vote!® today congratulated 18-to 30-year-old Americans on voting in 2004 in numbers not seen since the 1970’s. The turnout of adults ages 30 and under represents the highest turnout by younger voters in more than a decade, 4 percentage points higher than the previous peak year of 1992.

The Smackdown Your Vote! partners, including World Wrestling Entertainment® (NYSE:WWE), Youth Vote Coalition, Citizen Change, and the League of Women Voters, had set goals of (1) getting 20 million 18-to 30-year-olds to vote in 2004, and (2) achieving an increase of 2 million more voters age 30 and under in 2004 compared to 2000, both of which were achieved.

At least 20.9 million Americans under the age of 30 voted in 2004, an increase of 4.6 million over 2000, and the turnout rate among these voters rose from about 42.3 percent to 51.6 percent, a sharp rise of 9.3 percentage points, according to final national exit polls and an early tally of votes cast compiled by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Leaning and Engagement (CIRCLE). Voter turnout by younger voters was especially high in the contested battleground states.

WWE® CEO Linda McMahon said she was confident there would be greater participation by younger American voters in this election. “Back in the fall of 2003, Smackdown Your Vote! set the goal of achieving a significant increase in voter turnout in 2004 among 18-to 30-year-old Americans -- at least an increase of two million over 2000. We far surpassed that goal on November 2, and the WWE congratulates all the young Americans who voted and worked hard to increase voter turnout among 18-to 30-year-olds, including many of our WWE Superstars,” said McMahon. “Now we have to keep these younger voters engaged. It will be incumbent upon our elected leaders to effectively address the issues that are important to the young voters of America over the course of the next four years.”

Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, founder of Citizen Change, said, “Young voters around the country stood in long lines, withstood the rain, experienced voting challenges, but were not deterred. I’m sure our civil rights leaders who fought and died for us to have the right to vote would have been proud to see how this new generation of voters claimed their responsibility as Americans and voted.”

"Our goal was to get 20 million 18-to 30-year-olds to the polls this election and we did that and more," said Veronica De La Garza, executive director of Youth Vote Coalition. "This is an amazing response by young Americans. They turned out at the same rate as the always coveted ‘senior’ demographic. It shows young people care about their country and that they will be engaged in deciding the future of America."

“We are pleased that America’s young voters turned their passion into votes this year. From the early analysis it seems that young voters turned out in large numbers, defying long-held stereotypes of this group as disinterested and unwilling to participate,” said Kay J. Maxwell, LWVUS President.

Other Smackdown Your Vote! partners include Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, MTV’s Choose or Lose, The Harvard Institute Of Politics, Rock The Vote, 18TO35, Declare Yourself, and The New Voters Project.

Among the tactics used to encourage greater voter participation was the creation of a national Voter Issues Paper for 18-to 30-year-olds to which President Bush and Senator Kerry responded, election issues specials on MTV, a nationally broadcast Smackdown Your Vote! Youth Debate, national tours of poets and musicians, and an unprecedented coordinated effort to register and get younger voters to the polls.

Because young people participated in considerably larger numbers than they had in the past, they kept pace with the higher turnout of Americans of all ages. Voters under the age of 30 constituted the same proportion of all voters as they did in 2000 (about 18 percent).

Young people voted at a much higher rate in contested “battleground” states. In the 10 most contested states, younger turnout was 64%, up 13 percentage points from 2000. In the battleground states, the share of the electorate under 30 was 19%. In the remaining 40 states and the District of Columbia, youth turnout was 47% and the youth share of the electorate was 18%. One explanation for the higher rates of participation in the battleground states is that there was greater voter outreach and political advertising in these states. Current research shows that younger voters participate when they are asked to do so.

For more information go to civicyouth.org or smackdownyourvote.com.

 Results for 2004 are calculated using the National Election Pool exit polls (conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International) and a preliminary tally of votes cast, as reported by the Associated Press at 6 am on November 3. CIRCLE’s national turnout estimates and estimates of the youth share of the electorate are calculated by aggregating the 51 exit polls and vote tallies for the states and the District of Columbia. The same methodology is used to calculate figures for 2000. One caution in interpreting these estimates is that exit polls do not always adequately represent the proportion of voters by age. As a result, youth turnout and the numbers of votes cast by young people are estimates for all election years.
In 2004, we define the “battleground” as those in which the margin of victory was 5 percentage points or less, according to exit polls. These states are Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.


Trademarks: The names of all World Wrestling Entertainment televised and live programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans and wrestling moves and all World Wrestling Entertainment logos are trademarks which are the exclusive property of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.