Florida’s 2018 youth vote swells over previous midterm

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — State voter data shows that Florida’s youth vote in the 2018 election was significantly higher than the previous midterm after get-out-the vote efforts by Parkland school shooting survivors.

University of Florida political science professor Dan Smith analyzed state voter data released last week. About 37 percent of the state’s 18- to 29 year-olds voted in November, a 15 point increase compared with the 22 percent who voted in 2014. That’s especially notable for midterm elections when turnout is typically low.

The teenage survivors of the shooting that killed 17 last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School rallied hundreds of thousands to march for gun reform, landed on the cover of Time magazine and raised millions of dollars from celebrities like Oprah and George Clooney.