What about young independent voters?

I think we're a dying breed.

Source: Pollster

You would have to say that the GOP truly ruined the brand for the long run if that many young people switched from R to D between 2004 and 2008. Same kind of thing happened in 1996, just not nearly so dramatic. The tracks for independent and republican all demographic certainly seem to reflect inverse trends. Democrats seem to run a fairly constant trend from 1976 to 2004, when it dips - odd. But young people seem to be polarizing - and swinging too and fro. It would be interesting to do some digging and try to figure out what their unique burning issues were in 1996, 2000 and 2008. Makes you wonder... and it doesn't exactly seem like anyone (including Rock the Vote) really has a handle on this.