Kori Rempfer is a member of “This Group Has a Larger Population than Wasilla, Alaska,” “A Noun, A Verb, and POW (Beat McCain’s Cynical Side-stepping!)” and “No way, no how, no McCain!” on Facebook.

“With Facebook, it is easier to share [political] opinions and get active,” said Rempfer, a 25-year-old NIU alumna.

Rempfer is among many young voters who use social networking Web sites to discuss political philosophies and the election. But through Facebook and MySpace are just two ways young people find themselves participating in the election.

Many aspects of today’s current political climate makes this year’s election much different than any previous election.

About 58 percent of Americans under 30 years of age have registered to vote, according to an October CBS News/New York Times Poll. In the 2004 presidential election, only 21 percent of voters younger than 30 registered to vote according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).

College Democrats president Tony Wadas said his effort to make politics cool has attracted more volunteers this year than any year before.

“Our big push this year has also been with voter registration,” Wadas said. “We saw a huge number of people come out to register to vote.”

Wadas said more younger voters registering is a trend that will continue for future elections.

Wadas attributed several factors to the increase in young voters. He didn’t give all the credit to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

“What I really believe is different about our generation is Sept. 11,” he said.

With more young people enthusiastic and registered, they are likely to have a large influence on the election’s outcome. CIRCLE finds younger voters are more likely to vote Democratic.

Despite that notion, College Republicans are still working to get younger voters involved.

College Republicans chairman Andrew Bogda said there are younger voters in favor of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bodga also said he thinks young voters will only slightly have an influence on the election.

“We need to remember that the baby boomer generation still has a much more substantial population,” he said. “Older people are still much more likely to vote than younger people.”

Unlike the baby boomer population, Rempfer said young voters have been ignored in the national polls.

“It is a whole segment of the population that is ready to vote but hasn’t been asked who they are voting for,” she said.

Many polls only use landline phones to contact people, and a large amount of the college and the younger population only have cell phones.

“The amount of young people voting could be a huge surprise,” Rempfer said.