Obama and Clinton press for the youth vote in aging Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA - Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are hustling for the youth vote in Pennsylvania as if they’ve never heard this is a state where the old hold sway.\nCampuses in the cities and mountainsides are alive with political activism, stirred most notably by Obama in student registration drives aimed at replicating his success with young voters dating to the Iowa caucus in January.\nHow motivated are his youthful supporters? So motivated that Alyssa Beasley, 20, endured an encounter with the DMV so she could switch her driver’s license from New Jersey and register to vote at the same time.\nAnd how high are their expectations? In Beasley’s case, very.\n“I feel like my entire hope and dream for America lies on this man’s shoulders,” she said on the tree-lined campus of the Jesuit-run University of Scranton.\nThat heady courtship is matched by a vigorous effort on Clinton’s side. Altogether, the April 22 primary is becoming more of a can’t-miss event for the young instead of just another why-bother one on the political calendar.\nDoug Jones, 19, got so caught up in the excitement that he registered as a Democrat to vote for Clinton, even though he’ll probably vote Republican in the fall.\n“I’m not doing it out of sneaky and scheming motives to down the Democratic nominee,” said the University of Scranton student. “I’d like to take part in the process.”\nPennsylvania ranks third in the nation in the percentage of people 65 and older, a group that has favored Clinton elsewhere and appears strong for her here.\nObama is counting on a big showing from the state’s nearly 700,000 college students on more than 150 campuses.\nThe Illinois senator has received the support of about 60 percent of voters aged 18-24 in competitive states, exit polls indicate, and his advantage with that group doesn’t appear to be waning in Pennsylvania.\nThe question is whether that will be enough to prevail in a state where polls have found Clinton consistently ahead, if by shrinking margins.\n“We have a long way to go in Pennsylvania and maximizing the votes of young voters is critical if we’re going to be able to close the gap,” said Sean Smith, an Obama spokesman.\nPennsylvania makes voting easy for students from other states because it only requires 30 days residency to register. However, no one who voted in an earlier primary elsewhere can vote again here.\nMia Prensky, 21, of Harrisburg, said Obama supporters have been on her campus at Bryn Mawr Colleg – a women’s school with stone buildings nestled in Philadelphia’s wealthy Main Line – handing out stickers, distributing information about the Iraq war and encouraging students to vote. They struck a chord with her.\n“I still don’t really like the fact that Hillary voted for the war,” she said.\nIn Philadelphia, where more than 100,000 college students live, Obama volunteers with voter registration forms in hand have been on campuses and at train stations around Philadelphia’s bustling University City district, encouraging their peers to register.\nAmong them was Seth Dean, 23, a University of Pennsylvania student who said he decided in January to register as a Democrat in Pennsylvania. At home in Florida, he was a registered independent.\n“I kind of thought from the beginning it was going to be kind of a long, drawn-out fight and it might come down to Pennsylvania, so I just made a tactical decision,” Dean said.\nAside from Obama’s strong base among black voters, young voters are probably his strongest group, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.\n“I cannot recall another candidate in the past couple of decades that had such consistent support from young people,” Keeter said.\nA recent Quinnipiac University poll found Obama leading Clinton 51 percent to 42 percent among likely Democratic voters ages 18-44 in Pennsylvania, but trailing nine points overall.