Alliance for Better Campaigns

The Alliance for Better Campaigns is a public interest group aimed at improving elections through campaign reform. In the following viewpoint, the Alliance for Better Campaigns argues that youths are not politically active and that voter turnouts among eligible voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four are very low. The alliance attributes low voter turnout among young people to their lack of connection with their communities, their mistrust of government, and the lack of information available to them regarding candidates and issues.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does the University of California, Los Angeles’s 1997 survey cited by the alliance characterize the political desires and habits of college freshmen"
2. In the Medill School of Journalism’s view, what is one reason that nonvoters under the age...