no, no hard data that is the problem. And of course you are correct to go on polls. But even John Zogby has said his best prognostications had a bit of a "gut feel" element to them.
Anyway wrt specifics, I read the rock the vote page and the new millenium project which are two initiatives designed to improve young voting registration. There aren't any hard numbers because I don't think these figures are measured (or maybe not publicized). There is a lot of anecdotal evidence like this though, for most disenfranchised voting groups (this one is the black community another group with typically low turnout which will show up in droves this time):
The states, with their 2000 Black turnout rates in parenthesis, are: Florida, with a Black voting age population (BVAP) of 76.2 percent (43.2 percent); Illinois with a BVAP of 66.8 percent (67 percent); Michigan, with a BVAP of 67.6 percent (60.9 percent); Missouri with a BVAP of 67.9 percent, (68.2 percent); Ohio, with a BVAP of 67.4, (53.7 percent); Pennsylvania, with a BVAP of 68.1 percent (61.3 percent); and Wisconsin, with a BVAP of 70.8 percent (62 percent).
In just one month, the group has already registered more than 2,000 new voters in Cleveland, according to Rev. Romal J. Tune of Washington, the national field organizer for the ministers program.
"People are very energized. People are interested in the issues," Tune says. "Ministers groups and congregations have been doing registration at malls, shopping centers, grocery stores. They do what we call walks around the
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