EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE VOTING BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG VOTERS EVALUATION OF THE MEASURMENT MODEL
Young voters are very important as a target group, and therefore a better understanding of their voting behavior can help political campaigns develop a better communication strategy and thus, persuade more voters in elections. Based on the findings from the literature a model of the most influential external factors on voting behavior was proposed and tested to evaluate if it is applicable to measuring the voting behavior of young voters. The results of the study partially confirmed the model, suggesting more elaboration is needed in defining the potential influential factors on voting behavior of young voters. INTRODUCTION In recent years the rate of people who can be classified as young voters in the USA increased from 42 million in 2006 to nearly 50 million in 2008 (US Census Bureau) representing almost one third of the total electorate. Therefore, they are a group that might play an important role in the forthcoming presidential elections. All of those who are classified as younger voters belong to the so called Y generation. There have been many studies addressing the problem pertaining to why young voters do not vote (Dermody Lloyd, 2003, 2004) but little or no considerable study has been directed in researching the factors that influence the voting behavior of this specific group. Because of the importance of this specific group, understanding and explaining what shapes the voting decision of young voters represents a challenging issue. As Gardner, Rees Tsianti (2005) explained, many authors addressed the need for a more complex segmentation process in political campaigning. According to these authors political parties use "simplistic marketing and in particular a simplistic type of segmentation" (p.1162) and thus, they are not as effective as they would be using a more complex segmentation (Gardner, et al, 2005) Even if parties do customize the message, the basic message remains the same. Parties should be aware of the complexity of the possible voter. Since young voters represent almost a third of the total electorate they represent a very important research group.