These are excerpts of interviews with young people in Charlotte on their generation’s civic engagement.

Re: The Enthusiasm Gap Among Young Voters

“They say he’s a do-nothing president, a sitting duck, but he’s trying to get things done. I mean, healthcare reform, that’s crazy. That’s something we’ve been dreaming of since…Teddy Roosevelt. I mean, it may be because of the pessimism the Republicans are spewing out, but I don’t know. It’s just a culmination of factors such as that.”

-Sean Kehren, 18, Delegate

“When Obama was first running for president, he was going to be the first black president. And so many people turned out. It was so important for them to get him elected and in the White house. And, after these four years, really the Republicans have put this message out, from top to bottom, that you know he’s failed. And that’s resonating even though it shouldn’t because he’s done so much.”

-Jana Hoffa, 19, Delegate

“When you see the nasty debates, and the lies they’re telling, I wouldn’t be enthused either… These Republicans keep pushing this right wing agenda. There used to be civility in government, civility in debates. That’s gone out the window. What new voter would want to be a part of that?”

-Quentin Ocoma, 21, Delegate

Re: Power of Youth Vote

“I got into politics when I began college. I grew up in a very small conservative Southern town in western North Carolina. I always had more progressive views and I never really had an outlet to express those when I was younger. So as soon as I started college I got really involved in College Democrats and started volunteering on campaigns. I’ve been hooked ever since.”

-Tori Taylor, 23, Youth Engagement Coordinator at the DNC

“Some of the issues that are dear to me are incarceration rates among black youth. Also, affordable health care for our black youth, as well as affordable education. I feel that it has been and always will be a work in progress. It’s really important that we come together as a unified unit on the issues that concern us and not really…(leave) it accountable to one person.”

-Jessica Brown, 26, Black Youth Vote Field Coordinator 

“The immigration issues (are) part of why I’m a Democrat. I actually organized a walkout when I was a sophomore in high school to advocate (on) immigration policy and the reason I did so and the reason why I’ve become invested in the party is because the president and the Democrats promote such a positive message on immigration and immigration policy.”

-Alejandra Salinas, 22, President of College Democrats of America 

Tour of the apartment in midtown Charlotte, North Carolina that served as Youth Radio’s home base during the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

In 2008 Ayesha Walker attended the National Democratic Convention in Denver as a reporter for Youth Radio. This year she returned to the DNC, except this time as a California delegate. Walker is a tremendously talented photographer and has made the most of her access by taking many beautiful images both behind the scenes and on the convention floor, which she’s graciously allowed us to feature. Check out the below slideshow:

By Bianca Brooks

This story also aired on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Over the past few weeks, President Obama has been heavily courting the youth vote, visiting college campuses in swing states around the country. At the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, there’s a big push for youth involvement. There are 644 delegates under the age of 35, and even an official youth engagement coordinator. Polls show young adult support for President Obama at around 55%, slightly down from when he was elected in 2008.

At the first Youth Press Conference of the DNC, I asked the question on everyone’s mind: “What is dampening young adults’ enthusiasm for Obama?”

“I have to disagree with you when you talk about a lack of enthusiasm on college campuses,” said Alejandra Salinas, president of the College Democrats of America. “I want to give you tangible examples of that not being the case. We of the organization of college Democrats have seen incredible growth since 2008,” she said.

Salinas told me that her group keeps adding chapters in key states such as Florida and Ohio. She’s scheduled to be a speaker at the convention, and is passionate about the president. After the press conference, she pointed to his policy change on student loans that helped her.

“If interest rates had gone up to 6.6 percent, that would be tens of thousands of dollars more I would have been paying in interest alone if that policy had passed. That’s just a personal example how I am better off,” said Salinas.

Salinas also says she’s grateful to be staying on her parents insurance thanks to healthcare reform. And in her opinion, President Obama still has the “cool factor” and points to his now famous slow jamming the news on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

The Obama campaign is also using social media to reach out. They say they sent out more tweets in the weekend before the DNC than the entire election season in 2008. But 20-year-old Jean- Patrick Grillet, a volunteer at the convention, questions whether that’s a good strategy. When North Carolinians were voting on expanding a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage earlier this year, it became all the buzz on social media.

“And so everyone is getting on Facebook and that’s all they see. And they say to themselves, well I don’t have to vote, my 500 friends are going to vote for that. So I don’t have to go out today. And then Amendment 1 passed, and it was a really, really sad day,” he said.

Grillet is a young white male voter. Analysts say his demographic is the most unpredictable this election. He says he’s looking for honesty and strong stances. He watched the Republican Convention in Tampa to see if the Republicans could sway him. But he didn’t feel like they stood firm on issues he cared about. At the end of the day, it was President Obama’s stand on gay rights that won him over.

“I think I was undecided up until a few weeks ago. I was kind of holding out for Ron Paul to win the Republican ticket because I don’t consider him a Republican. I consider him more Libertarian third party. Now that it’s officially Romney against Obama, I’m definitely going Obama.”

Most of the people I talked to were supporters of President Obama. But according to some people, the President still has work to do to convince the remaining up-in-the-air young voters.

When you stop young people outside of official youth events at the DNC, some express fears of lost momentum, compared to 2008. 19-year-old Rachelly Then sees it in her social circle.

“The number of people I know my age that are going to vote is way less than the people my age I know that are not going to vote,” said Then.

Then’s friend 21-year-old Merancia Fils adds that there is a lack of urgency among her peers, and a sense that political issues don’t affect them yet. She says President Obama has to convey to them that he needs them.

“I feel like once he makes us feel like there is a need, then we’ll get more involved. We don’t feel like there’s a need,” said Fils.

Young voters making up close to 20 percent of the electorate. Analysts say they are still an important block. And in a close election, President Obama could need their votes to win.

That story was produced by Youth Radio.

It’s been quite an experience covering the Democratic Convention, joining the throngs of journalists, delegates, celebrities and die-hard Democrats.

These are the moments we caught on camera…

As you may have heard, championing the youth vote has been a major talking point throughout the DNC. I sat in on a Youth Council meeting, the group most responsible for revving up young voters, to see what they have in store.

After a quick introduction from chairman Jason Rae, the first speaker talked about Dashboard, an online tool designed to help delegates and other interested youth coordinate events and get people signed up to vote. So yeah, a Facebook clone with an unimaginative name, but it’s their Facebook clone with an unimaginative name.

After Facebook you gotta talk about Youtube right? Well they had that covered, of course, and showed this “fired up” video, which actually got the crowd cheering.

To keep the good vibes flowing, the next speaker, former Georgia State Senator and current DNC advisor Regina Thomas, used lots of imagery, visceral language, and hand motions to emphasize the importance of fighting for what you believe in. By the end of her rallying cry, most of the people were so visibly pumped up that they stood from their chairs.

David Seamus was next up to the plate. The Director of the Opinion Research Center did his best to describe the impact young delegates are making in the race for president. The message, “Go vote and get your friends to vote” turned into a several minute speech.

Then, ta-da, Jill Biden arrived, and was mobbed before she could even reach the podium.

The crowd was so excited to see her, take her picture, be in her presence or whatever, that it actually took her longer to get onto the stage than it did for her to give a congratulatory speech, and with that fitting end, I left during the next intermission.

By: Sayre Quevedo

The last two nights at the Democratic National Convention have had consistent themes: immigration, women’s rights, the economy, and college affordability. But one subject that has consistently been on the minds of Americans for the last weeks has not been mentioned once: gun control.

In July of this year, James Holmes entered the midnight premier of Batman at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 58. Then on August 5th, Wade Page entered a Sikh Temple, killing six people and injuring four. And on August 24th, Jeffery Johnson opened fired on a crowded street in front of the Empire State Building killing his former co-worker. These incidents didn’t happen years, but months and weeks before this event. So why haven’t they been mentioned?

The conventions are all about staying on message, and solidifying the president’s values. Veering from set talking points could be confusing for an audience tuning in to be reassured about the President and his accomplishments, not the issues he has yet to to solve. But Colleen Williamson from Indianapolis, Indiana says there’s another reason. “I really believe it’s because it’s kind of a scary issue too. I mean…people don’t want to hear about all the bad stuff that goes on.”

When I asked her when and if gun control would be addressed, she seemed uncertain. “In the last four years it hasn’t changed that much, so it’s probably not going to change in the next four. We’ve got too many other issues: education, women’s issues, health care. We’ve got too many issues to dwell on the gun issue.”

Cristin Leighty, 24, from Washington D.C argues that many of those other issues hit closer to home for most people. “In general, until things really affect you most people kind of tune out. Most Americans are thinking about their own jobs and the economy, so those kinds of issues, [like gun control] tend to take the back burner…But I’m sure if you talk to people in Colorado they’d probably feel differently.”

I didn’t talk to anyone from Colorado about guns, but I did talk to someone who said he’s been personally affected by gun violence. 27 year-old Ulises Gonzalez from East Los Angeles said he would like to see guns completely eradicated, but he concedes, “It’s a part of American culture, the right to bear arms.”

So, can we expect to hear Obama talk about gun violence tonight? Probably not. I just hope gun violence, like Leighty mentioned, doesn’t have to touch all of us before someone is willing to take a stance.

By: Malachi Segers

You can’t spend much time at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina this week without noticing certain contradictions. This state isn’t exactly known for its liberal politics. Barack Obama barely won here in 2008, and this year North Carolina voters approved Amendment 1, which limits domestic unions and expands an existing ban on gay marriage. In buzzword terms, this a battleground state.

I’ve seen trucks with billboards roving outside the Charlotte convention center touting, “A vote for Obama is a vote for America.” But there are similar trucks driving around with what I can only assume are anti-Obama messages, including a pro-life billboard with a giant picture of an aborted fetus, and another with a collage of inflammatory assertions like, “Islam isn’t a real religion.”

At Sunday’s Occupy demonstration, two young men standing on the periphery embodied a different kind of value contradiction, one that was internal. 17 year-old Clifford Martin and 19 year-old Stephan Shellsen are Democratic delegates from Minnesota, who came to Charlotte to participate in the DNC and Occupy (the very same movement protesting the conventions.)

When asked if he felt weird attending a protest against the very event he was a part of, Martin said, “Conceptually yes because it’s like ‘Well, as as a delegate I’m representing the system, the man, the machine.’ And those are largely things I agree with, but I came to the convention because I want to understand how it’s designed and what it means to be a part of civic engagement.”

Shellsen added, “As a delegate, I want to make a difference. I want to able to change things. But the only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I’m able to see all sides of the issue.”

Something else I’ve noticed is that this isn’t the full party-like atmosphere I expected from a political convention, and some young people admit that enthusiasm is a problem. 25 year-old Ayesha Walker is a California delegate participating in her second convention. She first attended in 2008 as a reporter for Youth Radio, and she’s concerned that some of her peers just aren’t that into it. “It’s like a movie they saw already,” said Walker. “Young people get excited about new things. In 2008 everybody was so emotional about this election. Everybody felt responsible. And now, it seems like the emotion is not as potent as it was in 2008.”

When President Obama took office, the nation was in crisis, and nearly four years later, there are still so many problems left to fix. Walker worries that many young voters are influenced by Obama’s sagging popularity. “ It seems like people are even afraid to say that they support Obama…but that has to change.”

“Change” was one of Obama’s campaign slogans in ‘08. In 2012 the Obama campaign will need to emphasize the changes Barack Obama delivered as president, and it will need to change the perceptions of young voters while also addressing tensions that exist in swing states like this one.

By Bianca Brooks

We interviewed pollster and strategist Dr. Anna Greenberg, Senior Vice President at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, who works with campaigns to get out their message, and has expertise in youth voting trends.

Youth Radio: Could you tell us exactly how important the youth vote will be in winning this election?

Anna Greenberg: The youth vote is quite important for Obama being re-elected. In presidential years, the under 30 vote is almost one fifth of the electorate. So almost one fifth of all voters are under 30. In 2008 he won 66% of voters under the age of 30. That was the biggest margin ever for a Democratic presidential candidate since we’ve had exit polls. Currently, he’s polling well below that with young voters at about 55% — and it’s even lower in the congressional elections.

He really has to make up for those votes among older voters if he can’t increase the margin among young voters.

Youth Radio: If Obama is polling worse among voters, is Romney polling better?

Greenberg: Romney is doing better than McCain did among younger voters. In other words, it’s not that they’re just undecided or maybe not voting, it’s that they’re more likely to support Romney. Romney is more vibrant, a younger sort of figure. Romney is speaking to concerns young people have around their economic future, that they may not see Obama addressing. It’s a critical segment of the vote. He’s not doing as well as he did in 2008, and I think they need to and probably will make huge efforts with younger voters.

[Caption below: Jean-Patrick Grillet is a volunteer at the DNC. He's an Independent -- the kind of voter the Obama campaign needs to sway in November.]

Youth Radio: They’re saying this is the most youth-friendly convention they’ve had thus far. Do you see that here in Charlotte?

Greenberg: I have to believe that [candidates] are making a special effort to get youth voters. Note that [President Obama] went to three college campuses during the Republican convention. I’m sure that it’s in part a reflection of their campaign strategy. I don’t know what it means to be friendly to the youth vote. Seems to me speaking to the economic concerns younger people have — whether it’s being in college or graduating with crushing debt, or not having a college education and having no economic opportunity. That strikes me as the conversation that younger people want to have.

Youth Radio: So is the focus on young people about image for the Obama campaign, or is it vote-driven?

Greenberg: I don’t think this is image-driven. Obama is relatively young. He was under 50 when he was elected president. He represents the future. He’s a multi-racial man, which is the future of America. So I don’t think he needs to project a youthful, energetic vision per se.

This is going to be a very close election. Part of the reason it’ll be closer than 2008 is that he’s getting 55% of young voters and not 66%. So I actually think there has to be a concerted effort to win some of those voters or it’s much harder to get re-elected.

Youth Radio: What does Obama need to do to get the youth vote?

Greenberg: I think the president needs to speak to their economic concerns, which are different than people who are older. If you are pre-retirement or retirement age, you are anticipating or currently supported by the social security Medicare system and that’s obviously a very important piece of the debate about the Ryan budget. And that’s fine, but it doesn’t speak to where younger people are.

You have the highest unemployment rate among young people, especially minority youth. They have the highest unemployment rates, high student debt, college is unaffordable. He will have to offer a vision.