Daily Debriefing
By Susan Matthews
Published on Thursday, February 7, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., success in the Super Tuesday primaries could be the result of his popularity among young voters. A record number of young people voted in the 2008 primaries, according to The Los Angeles Times. The rise in the number of youths casting their ballots may be due to the relative ease of voting, campaigns' efforts to target youth and the close competition among the candidates, The LA Times reported. In addition, youth-oriented websites and groups such as Campus Progress have also encouraged young people to vote. The youth vote -- votes cast by 18- to 29-year-olds -- doubled in the New Hampshire primary this year. Many of these voters supported Obama, though Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., won the state's contest. Obama also took the youth vote in Missouri, New Jersey and New York, according to CNN exit polls taken on Tuesday. Clinton was victorious in both New Jersey and New York overall.
The Class of 2012 will be the first undergraduate applicants to Cornell University who will be allowed to apply to two of Cornell's seven colleges, indicating a primary and an alternate choice. The admissions office of the applicant's first-choice college will review the application first and pass it to the alternate-choice college if the applicant is not admitted. The new admissions process will allow Cornell to address the varied interests of their applicants, Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment, told The Cornell Daily Sun. This is the first permanent change to the university's application since it switched to the Common Application in 2004.