Or are they?

By Neil Tickner
Photography by John T. Consoli

Young voters turned out in unusually strong numbers last November, raising hopes that a more politically engaged and civically active generation had come of age. Or was it just a momentary burst of enthusiasm?

It’s lunchtime at the 601st Precinct polling place in Forestville, Md., and Matt Stern gets to sit down for the first time all day. The 18-year-old University of Maryland freshman has been on the job as a non-partisan poll worker since 6 a.m.

Only about a dozen people are waiting to vote. But until now, the lines have been “out the door and around the corner,” says Chief Election Judge Edith Robbins.

This is the first presidential election Stern could vote in, and he likes the idea of spending it in this school cafeteria. “This is helping people vote,” Stern says. “If you want your politicians to serve you, you’ve got to elect them.”

With a device that dangles from his neck, Stern preps the special cards needed to activate the electronic voting machines, and gets voters ready to go. One voter intimidated by the computerized equipment says to him, “Tell me exactly what to do,” but leaves saying, “it’s easy.”

About 30 Maryland students are working at other polling places on this November day, part of a new collaboration between the university’s Center for American Politics and Citizenship and the federal government. Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer (D–5th District) sponsored it to “ignite the civic spirit” of young people and reverse what he calls a “civic engagement crisis.”

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