The Declare Yourself 2004 Campaign Evaluation:

Reaching the Emerging Electorate

Prepared by Princeton Survey Research Associates International

For The Declare Yourself Young Voter Campaign
November 2004

Declare Yourself Ddd The Declare Yourself 2004 Campaign Evaluation

100 N. Crescent Drive, Suite 250 Survey is based on telephone interviews with 800 U.S.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Dd adults, 18 and older, who downloaded voter registration
(310) 385-4111 forms from the DeclareYourself.com Web site. 508 of
www.DeclareYourself.com those polled were 18-29 years of age.
 2

Declare Yourself Evaluation Survey:

Reaching the Emerging Electorate

Princeton Survey Research Associates International

Report Of Key Findings

November 15, 2004

The Election and Declare Yourself Downloaders

The Declare Yourself 50-state campaign to get young adults to register and vote in the 2004
presidential election is unprecedented in scope. Prior to the election over 1 million registration forms
were downloaded from the DeclareYourself.com website in response to an extensive voter education
effort over a three-year period to boost turnout among the young, using technology, media partners,
and celebrity spokespersons to get the message out. How many of those who downloaded forms took
the next steps and actually registered and voted? Who were they and how did they end up voting? A
new national post-election survey conducted for Declare Yourself (DY) by Princeton Survey Research
Associates International (PSRAI) answers these questions and more. A total of 800 adults across the
country who downloaded voter registration forms from DeclareYouself.com were interviewed from
November 4-10, 2004.

According to the new survey, Declare Yourself’s registration tool has been a major success by any
reasonable standard: Eighty-three percent of those who downloaded the forms say they followed
through and actually registered to vote.
Most DY Downloaders Under Age 30
Seventy-six percent of downloaders Registered And Voted
report that they cast a ballot for president 7%

this year, either at their local polling place

on Election Day or through some form of
16%
early voting. Accounting for duplication
76%
and making allowances for some
1%
overreporting of voter participation, that
translates to about 500,000 to 600,000
Registered & voted Registered, didn't vote
people across the country who cast a
Didn't register Undesignated
vote for president after using the DY
website to help them register.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 3

This national survey achieved a high response rate and included an additional step in the research
process to test whether downloaders who were unavailable for an interview were significantly different
in their voting behavior from those that cooperated. Fifty percent of all downloaders selected at
random who provided working landline telephone numbers completed the interview. In cases where
the target respondent (i.e., the person on record as having downloaded forms from
DeclareYourself.com) was not available, interviewers attempted to complete a short interview with
another household member – usually a parent or sibling – to determine if the target respondent was
registered and voted. Reports from these surrogates were consistent with the reports of target
respondents themselves. About 90 percent who were able to provide information said the target
respondent was registered prior to Election Day and 80 percent of those able to provide information
said the target respondent voted in the presidential election.

Three-Quarters of Under 30s Who Downloaded Forms Showed up to Vote

In making voter registration information easily available online, the Declare Yourself website did not
discriminate by age, and downloaders were not limited to the young. Nonetheless, the campaign had
its strongest impact with the target population of the campaign – the youngest voting-age Americans.
Nearly half (48%) of downloaders are under 25 years of age and almost two-thirds (64%) are under
30. Forty percent of all downloaders say they are full-or part-time students; 29 percent are college
undergraduates. In terms of follow-through, the campaign was about as successful among the young
as it was overall: 83% of downloaders under 30 years of age report having registered and 76% of
downloaders under 30 say they cast a ballot for president this year.

Based on these reports and adjusting the figures for duplication and possible overreporting, between
320,000 to 380,000 of the estimated 20 million young adults under 30 who voted this year used the
Declare Yourself online registration tool as a resource.

The survey examined the attitudes and behaviors of young downloaders in a variety of areas related to
voting and the election. The following are among the major findings of this survey:

• The new survey confirms previous research indicating that getting young people to register is
most critical to boosting their turnout. A majority (59%) of downloaders under 30 who didn’t
vote say registration problems such as missing the registration deadline or not receiving an
absentee ballot in time were mainly responsible for their not following through and joining the
ranks of the voters. All but a few of those who got over the registration hurdle say they voted
(92%).

• The under 30s who downloaded forms from the DY website come from all population
subgroups, but have distinctive geographic, ethnic, and political tendencies. Their breakdown
by region is 27% Northeast, 22% Midwest, 28% South, and 23% West. That’s slightly higher
representation in the Northeast and West and lower in the Midwest and South compared with
the distribution of voters aged 18-29 in the national exit poll (NEP). Under 30 DY downloaders

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 4

mostly live in suburban (62%) or urban (30%) communities. Only one in 10 resides in rural
America (9%) compared with one in four (24%) under 30 voters overall according to the NEP.
The racial and ethnic composition of downloaders under 30 is 68% white, 9% African-
American, 14% Hispanic and 5% Asian. That is a bit low for the percent African-American
(15% of under 30 voters in the NEP) and a bit high for the percent Asian (2% in the NEP). The
party ID distribution of young downloaders leans toward the Democratic Party (40% Dem, 28%
Rep, and 27% Ind). This compares with more even party ID distribution of 37% Dem, 35%
Rep, and 21% Ind of under 30 voters in the NEP.

• The DY campaign appears to

DY Successful in Getting First Time Voters
have succeeded in its goal of
getting large numbers of
72%
80%
young people to the polls 70%
58%

who never voted before. 60% 42%

Seventy-two percent of 50%

28%
40%
under 30 downloaders who
30%
say they voted identify 20%
themselves as first-time 10%
voters. This compares with 0%
DY 18-29 NEP
less than half (42%) of
Based on Voters
voters age 18-29 in the NEP
who said they had never First time voter Voted in previous election

voted before.

• Under 30 downloaders who voted found the voting process itself about as easy as downloading
the registration forms from the DY website. Ninety-six percent said the voting process was
easy, including 50 percent who said very easy. By comparison, 87 percent said it was easy to
download the forms, including 46 percent who said very easy.

• About seven in 10 under 30s who voted say they experienced no problems when they went to
vote. Those who did experience problems are most likely to report having to wait in a long line
(16%) and finding out that their name was not on the list of registered voters (8%).

• Under 30 DY downloaders who voted gave a bigger margin to John Kerry than did under 30
voters in general. Kerry’s margin among under 30 downloaders was 61%-34% according to the
new survey; the NEP reported that Kerry won the under 30 vote overall by 54%-45%.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 5

• As seen for all voters in the NEP, no single issue proved to be most influential in determining
young DY downloaders’ choice for president. When presented with a list of issues and asked
which one mattered most, 21% selected Iraq, 21% moral values, 16% the economy and jobs,
and 12% terrorism. In a politically polarized nation, supporters of the two candidates name
completely different sets of concerns as most critical to their vote. Young downloaders who
voted for Bush did have one dominant concern – moral values is named by 49 percent, with
terrorism a distant second mentioned by 17 percent. The moral values item, which was
included in the national exit poll, has been criticized as flawed, not describing a discrete political
issue but instead allowing less issue-oriented voters to “opt out” and respond in terms of their
general religious faith or perceptions of the candidates’ character. Young downloaders for Kerry
cite a wider variety of issues – and a set of concerns more typically associated with young
people – as their top priority, including Iraq (28%) the economy and jobs (21%), civil liberties
and rights (15%) and education (10%).

• Young DY downloaders who backed President Bush do, in fact, seem more personality driven.
While about half (52%) of Bush voters say the were primarily motivated to vote by strong
support for their preferred candidate, far fewer (21%) say strong feelings about an issue was
the primary motivation to vote. Those who voted for Kerry were much less likely to say strong
support for a candidate was the main driver (14%). Instead, Kerry voters most often cite
strong opposition to George W. Bush (36%) and strong feelings about a particular issue or
issues being discussed in the campaign (30%).

• The survey findings tend to refute the proposition that young, first-time voters will be
discouraged from participating in politics and civic engagement activities in the future because
their candidate lost. While 14 percent of all downloaders under 30 say they participated in voter
registration or civic engagement activities this year, twice that number (31%) say they plan to
get involved in such activities over the next year. And it’s the Kerry voters, whose man went
down to defeat, that are most energized to get more involved after the election. Thirty-seven
percent of under 30 Kerry voters, compared with 19% of under 30 Bush voters, say they plan to
participate is such activities over the next year.

• Another group that plans to get more involved in voter registration and civic engagement
activities are those that missed the boat and failed to register in time to vote this year. Four in
10 (38%) under 30 downloaders who didn’t register say they plan to get involved in such
activities over the next year. Those who didn’t register tend to have fewer years of formal
education than those who voted. Only about half (48%) have any college experience,
compared with three-quarters (75%) of those who voted.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 6

• Young Kerry and Bush voters differ somewhat in where they got their news about the 2004
presidential campaign. Under 30 downloaders who voted for Kerry are more likely than Bush
voters to say the Internet was a main source (44% vs. 33%) and less likely than Bush voters to
say Cable TV news networks (36% vs. 53%) were a main source of campaign news.

• Like the voting public as a whole, many young downloaders who cast a ballot for president used
some form of early voting rather than doing it the old-fashioned way of going to their local
polling place on Election Day. Twelve percent say they voted by mail or absentee ballot and
another 5 percent voted early in person. That totals to 17 percent who voted early vs. 83
percent who voted in person on November 2 nd . P P

• The new survey provides some information about whether young voters with a cell phone but
no landline phone at home differed significantly from other young voters in their presidential
vote this year. Overall, 15% of all under 30 downloaders who voted say there was some point
in the last year when they had a cell phone but no landline in the place where they lived. (This
compares with 19% of under 30 voters in the NEP who said they were in a cell-phone only
situation at the time they voted.) Survey analysis indicates that those who rely more on cell
phones were not all that different from other young people in the way they voted. The more
cell-phone dependent group report voting for Kerry by a 64%-27% margin compared with a
61%-35% Kerry margin among all other under 30 downloaders who report having voted.

Voter Registration And The Declare Yourself Website

The Declare Yourself campaign’s efforts to reach college students and high school seniors and persuade
them to start the voting habit early on appear to have paid off. Based on the demographics of the
young downloaders of registration forms, the Declare Yourself website was especially popular with
students. In total, 44% of DY downloaders say they are currently attending college or graduate school
and 35% say they are enrolled in a higher education institution as a full-time student. Another 8% say
they are attending high school. Young downloaders tend to be better educated than the young adult
population overall. Three-quarters (76%) of young downloaders say they have at least some college
experience. But working people were also well represented – 44% of downloaders under 30 say they
are employed full-time. Under 30 downloaders are also a more affluent group than the under 30s in
general. As many report of household income of $60,000 or more (27%) as say it is under $30,000
(27%). As note previously, a majority (61%) say they live in the suburbs.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 7

Previous research has shown young people having a preference for using the Internet to get
information about voting. Two
Internet and News Coverage Top Sources of
thirds (67%) of young
Registration Information
downloaders said they have
gotten information about voter The Internet
67%

registration from the Internet, General news coverage

67%

more than identify parents (44%), Parents

44%

friends (42%) , and their high

42%
Friends

school or college (38%) as a

38%
School/College
34%
resource for such information. Entertainment TV
27%
However, another resource – Other family members
20%
general new coverage on TV, Local elections office

radio, newspapers, and other 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

media – is a source of information Percent Used as a Source

for as many (67%) young
downloaders as the Internet.

The survey provides some important information about how potential young voters found the DY
website and their experiences with it:

• Two-thirds (67%) of downloaders under 30 were not familiar with Declare Yourself or its voter
registration activities prior to visiting the website. That leaves one-third (32%) who knew about
the organization beforehand. Those who voted for Kerry are more likely than those who voted
for Bush to have prior knowledge (38% vs. 27%).

• TV or radio ads had the biggest impact in informing young downloaders about Declare Yourself
prior to their initial website visit. About half (52%) found out about the organization through
such ads; fewer say they learned about Declare Yourself from the Internet (26%). The third
most common source of information for this group was entertainment TV programs (15%). As
far as Internet sources, one in 10 (10%) found out about Declare Yourself through Yahoo.com,
one of the program’s partners, while 7 percent were made aware through Google.com.

• Further demonstrating the impact of ads over other types of media, two-thirds (67%) of young
downloaders aware of Declare Yourself prior to visiting the website remember seeing PSAs or
ads with celebrities encouraging people to vote.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 8

• Speaking of celebrities, only a small number (11%) of young downloaders say appearances or
endorsements by celebrities were important in motivating them to register and vote this year.
Not surprisingly, Kerry voters were much more likely than Bush voters to say celebrity
appearances or endorsements mattered (15% vs. 4%). Only one individual celebrity registered
much above 1 percent – 5 percent of all under 30 downloaders said Sean (“P. Diddy”) Combs
efforts to get young people more involved encouraged them to register.

• While the Declare Yourself campaign’s outreach efforts helped bring many young people to the
website, a majority (60%) of downloaders under 30 actually found it on their own in the process
of a more general search for voter registration information on the web. Thirty-eight percent say
they were looking specifically for DeclareYourself.com. Google.com, the most popular
commercial search engine, was the portal through which largest number of young downloaders
came to the DY website. Another 19 percent found the website through a Yahoo site or
advertisement and 14 percent went to the website in response to a Declare Yourself PSA or
advertisement.

• Roughly nine in 10
DY Website Makes Getting Registered Easy
downloaders under 30
say it was easy or very
easy to find voter
registration information Downloading 46% 41% 9% 4%
registration forms
on the DY website (93%)
and that it was easy or
very easy to download Getting info. about 45% 48% 6%1%
registration and
the voter registration voting
form (87%). A majority
of those who say they 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

registered to vote did so Percent Answering

using the forms they Very Easy Easy Total Difficult Don't know
downloaded there.
About a quarter (23%) of under 30 downloaders who voted by mail or absentee ballot say they
used the absentee ballot request application tool on the DY website.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE
 9

• Young Americans request in the previous DY poll for a website providing “one stop shopping”
for voter information was not just idle talk. Downloaders under 30 used the website for more
than just accessing registration forms. About half (48%) of this group used the DY website to
get information about registration or voting in their particular state. Four in 10 (41%) read
news about the election on the website, and a third (33%) used in to get information about the
parties. Kerry voters were more likely than Bush voters to use the DY website for news about
the election (45% vs. 32%) and information about the candidates (38% vs. 22%).
Declare Yourself's Website Was One-Stop Shopping

48%
50%
41%
45%
Percent who ysed website for...

40% 33%
35%
30% 23%
25%
20%
10%
15% 8%
10%
5%
0%
Info . o n News abo ut the Info . abo ut Info . abo ut the Info . o n civic o rgs. Watch P SA 's/
registratio n/vo ting electio n candidates parties wo rking o n vo ting o ther video
in o wn state issues co ntent

Survey Methodology
Results are based on telephone interviews with 800 U.S. adults, 18 and older, who downloaded voter
registration forms from the DeclareYourself.com website. In total, 508 of those who downloaded forms
were 18-29 years of age. Respondents were selected at random from a national database of
approximately 595,000 names and phone numbers of individuals across the country who downloaded
materials before October 21, 2004. Interviewing was conducted by telephone, November 4-10, 2004.
The obtained sample was weighted by geographic region so its regional distribution matched the
distribution in the data from which it was drawn. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus
4 percentage points for results based on the total sample of all who downloaded materials from the
website and plus or minus 5 percentage points for results based on 508 downloaders between the ages
of 18 to 29. Results based on smaller subgroups are subject to larger margins of sampling error. In
addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting surveys can also introduce error or
bias to poll results.

PRINCETON SURVEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL

DECLARE YOURSELF EVALUATION SURVEY: REACHING THE EMERGING ELECTORATE