Youth voter registration has surged since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, according to a new analysis by data firm TargetSmart – including a 5.5 percent bump in North Carolina.
The company’s analysis of 39 states found the share of youth registrations in the N.C. increased from 38.7 to 44.2 percent since the February shooting.
In a release promoting the analysis, TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier attributed the increase to the well publicized movement to organize youth for the November election.
“A new generation of political leaders emerged in the aftermath of the Parkland tragedy,” Bonier said in the release Thursday. “We witnessed their ability to organize in North Carolina and across the country as massive crowds took to the streets for the March for Our Lives, and now we’re seeing a quantifiable impact from that organizing. It remains to be seen how many of these younger registrants will cast a ballot in November, but they are poised to have a louder voice than ever in these critical midterm elections.”
The release also highlighted the findings of a poll from the Harvard University Institute of Politics, conducted after the Parkland shooting. It found 64 percent of 18-29 year-olds favor stricter gun control laws whether or not they plan to vote in November. Nearly two-thirds of those under 30 who say they plan to vote said they support stricter laws.