Voter registration is now a youth movement

If voter registration numbers are any indication, young Virginians are assuming more responsibility for deciding the shape of the future. More than 200,000 Virginians registered to vote between January and Aug. 1, and nearly two-thirds of them are younger than 35, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last week.

Just because they registered doesn't mean they will actually go to the polls in November, of course. And despite the hype about Democrat Barack Obama drawing young people to politics, Republican John McCain still has a sizable lead among Virginia's young voters, says a SurveyUSA poll.

Regardless of the reason, the possibility that a greater percentage of young people will help to choose our leaders is good news and continues a recent trend. Between 2002 and 2006 in Virginia, the percentage of those younger than 30 who voted increased by 14 points, to 32 percent, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, a nonpartisan group based at Tufts University that researches civic involvement by youths between 15 and 25.

Today's young people have seen closely contested national elections, ideological polarization, terrorist attacks and war, the center noted. They've also watched helplessly as federal government borrowing mortgaged their future. Unlike the youth of the early '90s, the Millennial Generation sees politics as a way to change the world. It sorely needs it.