Time spent on younger voters is NOT time lost on older voters; better yet, addressing young voters will help you with most older voters.   Current research indicates that older voters will support a candidate who reaches out to young voters; some may actually prefer a candidate who pays more attention to the young. This is consistent with John McCain's experience in the 2000 presidential primaries. And analysis by Yale University researchers has found that GOTV directed at young voters has a "trickle up" benefit with older voters in the same households. Young voter outreach a plus with older voters: An October 2003 survey by Lake Snell Perry & Associates and the Tarrance Group shows that older voters like candidates who campaign to young voters. Also, some older voters say they would prefer a candidate who goes after younger voters to one who focuses on older people like them. In a national telephone survey of 1000 likely voters of all ages, the pollsters examined how voters' attitudes about a candidate changed based on the candidate's efforts to reach out and discuss issues with younger and older voters. They found that: Older voters show overwhelming support for candidates who talk to younger voters, with 90% of respondents 50 to 59 (and 88% of all voters) saying they'd be more likely to support a candidate who talks to younger voters about issues of concern to all voters. Older voters held this view regardless of party affiliation. The older the respondent, the more strongly they liked a candidate's outreach to young voters. While 48% of 30-39 year olds said such outreach would strongly affect their vote, 53% of 60-69 year olds did, and 56% of 70+ did. Surprisingly, some older voters prefer candidates who focus more on young voters. Respondents 45-64 and 70+ said they were actually more likely to support a candidate that talked to younger voters about issues of concern to all voters than a candidate who talked to voters over 60 years old about issues that concerned them. African Americans are most receptive to a candidate going after young voters. 100% of older African Americans surveyed said they would be more likely to support a candidate who talked to young voters - and 83% said they felt strongly.   The McCain Experience: A study by Dr. Cliff Zukin of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University looked at the way the John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign appealed to both older voters and young voters in the New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primaries. His conclusion_ McCain's effort to reach and inspire young voters did not come at the expense of attracting older voters to his candidacy. In fact, it may have helped him with older voters. Zukin found that:   While campaigning heavily for the youth vote, McCain won his highest voting percentages in both the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries among voters over 50 years old. In exit polling in both states, McCain's favorable ratings went up and unfavorables went down the older respondents got. Exit polls also said that McCain's "Straight Talk" tactics resonated even more with voters over 50 than with those 18-49. "Trickle Up": In their 2001 study, "Getting Out the Youth Vote: Randomized Field Experiments," and 2002 study "Getting Out the Youth Vote in Local Elections: Results from Six Door-to-Door Canvassing Experiments," Yale Professors Donald Green and Alan Gerber found that when young voters were contacted by another young adult in a face to face visit, overall turnout among other older voters in a household increased by 3 to 5.7%. Green and Gerber attributed this effect to canvassers encountering more than one voter in a household, or upon meeting with just one voter, the contact stimulating discussion among housemates that leads to higher rates of turnout. In other words, when canvassing turned out a young voter, it often brought out an older voter, too.