Last night the epic love story between Barack Obama and the youngest generation of voters finally got its fairy tale ending. After months of reaching out to the population both digitally and in person, yesterday teens, college students and twentysomethings finally got the chance to answer back to their chosen candidate. And that they did. With gusto.

In a record turnout at the polls, nearly two-thirds of the youth vote came out in support of Obama. MSNBC reports this as the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976.

So much for fears that the so-called slacker generation wouldn't come through. More from the MSNBC article:

“Consistently throughout the country in key swing states, Obama is outperforming John Kerry’s performance (with young voters) from four years ago by two to three times the margin,” John Della Volpe [the director of polling for the Harvard University Institute of Politics] says, noting that on Tuesday night in Indiana, Obama was losing to McCain in every important demographic — except young voters. “In many states, the only significant electorate that Obama is winning is young people.”

A clear demonstration of what a motivated young population can achieve, Obama's victory is one shared by Generation We.

The Wall Street Journal's Juggle blog raised an interesting question today: What does it take to interest kids in politics? With the first debate set to take place tonight, the WSJ wonders how many teens will tune in. After the drama over whether tonight's debate would actually happen, I find it hard to imagine to that kids will be willing to trade their Friday night plans for a evening in front of the TV. Still, I'm sure that teens interested in this election will watch the highlights, lowlights or other gaffes on YouTube.

To expand on The WSJ's question, everyone from campaigners to candidates would like to know not only whether or not teens are tuning in, but whether youth 18 and up will actually turn out to vote in large numbers. Many websites think celebrity endorsements are the solution to catching the attention of teens and young voters. Rock The Vote has Santogold and Soulja Boy, Declare Yourself has America Ferrera and the cast of "Greek," and Ur Votes Count has Selena Gomez. Teen magazines have also added campaign coverage to their website - Seventeen's "Electionista" and Teen Vogue's "Political Partier" - and write in an accessible, entertaining format that would appeal to teen girls.

The latest election website that's hoping to attract teens is Shop The Vote! The name alone sure caught my attention, but the concept itself didn't quite live up to my expectations. According to the press release, Shop The Vote! is "the first digital out-of-home public service campaign designed to reach these critical citizens before November 4 in the environments that matter to them most: in stores, online and on their mobile phones." The idea is definitely unique, but the downside is that the two stores they're trying to reach teens through are F.Y.E. and Journeys — neither of which I've set foot in for years. To cover all of their bases, Shop The Vote! has a variety of famous names (Olivia Wilde, the cast of "American Teen") attached, too. While it's great that all of these youth voting sites exist, we all know that the real impact will be viral, i.e. reaching teens where they hang out already, on MySpace and Facebook, or connect more directly through cell phones and PDAs.

So….Will all of these youth-targeted promotions work? I guess we'll know November 4th.

Like a Rock The Vote for this election's teenagers, UR Votes Count is the latest interactive political sounding board for students. The website is sparkling and entertaining, with hip graphics, cool lingo, and millennial-friendly advertisers, or, um, "friends" like Sprint, CosmoGIRL!, and Discover Card. The target audience is 13 to 17 year-olds. but the to-the-point writing style and fun format would be appealing to young voters, too.

UR Votes Count breaks down the candidate's platforms by issue. and from there, summarizes their stance in concise bullet points (Obama on education: believes math and science education should be a higher priority; McCain on social security: believes social security program is “going broke” and that Americans must sacrifice to fix it).

To spread the word about their cause, the website is hitting 150 malls in 42 states in 6 weeks, and, as the national spokesperson, Disney star Selena Gomez - you were expecting that, right? - hosted the kickoff party. The company is using the promise of mall entertainment and shopping deals to lure in tweens and teens, but I'm not sure that will work. As I've mentioned before, malls aren't quite the cool hangouts they once were.

To get a taste of the website's style, here's a peek at their "About Me" and "FAQ":

What is it? It’s a website located on the worldwide web. (World famous). “Duh” you say. Well this site is also a place to find out about issues affecting the election. We tried to have some fun with it, because involvement is anything but Snoresville.

What can you find? You can find all kinds of things. Colors, pictures, more colors, but you can also find out about our election process, issues, our mall events, and get free stuff!

How can I contact my elected officials? You could hire a sky writing company to write your issues in the sky above Washington. But it’s probably cheaper and faster to just use this site: Declare Yourself [editor's note: Declare Yourself is a nonprofit, but they signed on as a partner and set up shop at each event to register eligible voters online].

What's the deal? Why do you want us to vote at malls when we can't vote in the election? Because UR voice matters. We want to know how you feel - and we're going to make sure the results are heard.

So the media reports it. What difference does that make? Politicians listen. They have to. After all…you'll be voting in the next election. The media reports what citizens care about - and that puts it on the politicians' radar. UR voice truly counts. It helps to shape the political agenda

Text lingo, teen slang, and sass? It's [almost] like a 15-year-old wrote it herself.

The website is also on Facebook, but so far it's only drawn 86 fans compared to Rock the Vote with over 40,000). This could be because it's still new, while Rock the Vote has been around for years….

Speaking of, here's a quick roundup of other teen/youth focused election resources — we've mentioned lots of these in Essentials and thought we would make a short list. Feel free to add any we missed in the comments!

18in08
Be Counted (Facebook application)
Declare Yourself
Rock The Vote
Scholastic: Election '08
PBS Blueprint for Civic Engagement
MTV Choose or Lose '08
League of First Time Voters

Wiretap did a nice interview with Jehmu Green (head of Rock the Vote) reflecting on the youth turnout in this past election. Her first priority is still trying to set the record straight and counter the initial press reports that said young people didn't turn out. She also characterizes this generation as more tolerant of diversity (even the young social conservatives don't want to "go after gay people") and says the big issues to organize young people around will be the cost of education, media consolidation and election reform. On the issue of celeb involvement — they need to be involved but the first timers need to be converted into Jane Fondas and Susan Sarandons (lifelong activists)…

I guess the beef I have with Rock the Vote and celebrity involvement is that because of its non partisan nature (although you can tell they lean liberal but are trapped by a tax status), they can't really talk about issues from any real point of view. It's just "VOTE," which only gets you so far…I think that the musicians for Kerry tour (Springstein, Dixies, Pearl Jam, etc.) was much more effective in actually combining their appeal with the passion of their convictions and a message…

Related:

The Youth Did Vote Damnit!
Does 'Rock the Vote' Miss the Boat?

Jehmu Greene, president of Rock the Vote, spoke on a panel at the ONA conference this weekend — she seemed tired. I think she was tired because she spent this past week trying to refute initial A.P. exit poll stories that claimed the youth did not turn out as expected in this election. These types of stories have the potential to decrease youth voter registration and turnout in the future. Newsweek says they turned out in force and has the real numbers to prove it.

I still think it's worth examining why they turned out — was it the MTV style celebrity marketing messages or their fears and concerns about Iraq, the economy, etc.? Who got to them? A TV ad or another young person with a clipboard?

7 UP Debuts GRAMMY Musician Pop Cans (the official "uncola" of the Grammys will have special edition cans and has donated money to high schools that have made a commitment to music education) (Promo Magazine)
Rock the Vote irks Republicans (they feel it promotes a "Democratic" agenda and is not non-partisan) (Reuters)
Remind everyone you know to vote today with a text message (via Silicon Beat)
Nothing shady about Eminem's new message (more on Mosh — I finally watched the video online last night. It gave me the chills…in a good way) (MSNBC)
Snapple & Enpocket: The results are in (read the press release about their summer wireless marketing campaign)
OMG! Instant Messaging Is Becoming an Ad Vehicle (shocking…) (Technology Marketing)
Vegan Fashions (Reveries explores the new cruelty-free fashion trend)
USA Today asks if Jon Stewart is overexposed. Obviously young people think NOT. (USA Today)
Queer eye for the straight boy (Australian pub The Age - reg. required - reports on the teen boy grooming trend and products sold at Target)
'American Idol' spawns endless holiday CD releases (Reality Blurred)

Watch Eminem's new video: MOSH (Guerilla News Network)
AOL to premiere new Star Wars trailer (before the movie) (CNET News.com)
Wireless Youth Identify War as Top Issue in Election (new Rock the Vote poll) (TCM Net)
INdTV Appoints Senior Executives (Founding Teen People publisher, Channel One visionary to take the helm)(PR Newswire)
Bluenotes mixes it up for teen market (American Eagle is attempting to revamp its struggling Canadian retail brand by "focusing on denim, catchy graphic shirts and accessories, while using music and extreme sports as key marketing and design themes.") (Globe and Mail)
'Scrubs' Creator 'Watching' New Sitcom at WB ("Nobody's Watching" revolves around two twentysomething guys who win a reality show and get to create their own sitcom…) (Reuters)
'Grounded' gets grounded on the WB (Reuters)
'Vote or Die' campaign takes off (the 32-year-old man and the company behind the P. Diddy voter campaign) (The Journal News)
If that's not enough, spend a day with P. Diddy on the trail (A.P.)

The New York Times (registration required) has the latest on the efforts to reach the elusive youth voter. The new news is that "polls in the spring and summer from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center and MTV all found that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago." The story also rehashes the current efforts on both sides to increase youth voter turn-out as well as how youth voting has been in decline and accusations that Rock the Vote has been ineffective. It did point to one new effort I wasn't aware of:

"The founders of Hot or Not, a popular youth Web site at which people post photographs of themselves that are rated on a "hotness" scale, is holding a sweepstakes that will pay one registered voter $100,000 after the election; another $100,000 will go to the person who helped the winner register for the contest."

You can check out this effort at Vote or Not and read a story specifically about this from Wired News.

Related:

'Daily Show' Scores With Young Voters
IMing the Vote
Rock Your Rights
Voting as a Fashion Statement
Peer-to-Peer Voter PSA's
Va Va Vote!
Candidates Court Youth Vote
Voting is for Punk People
P. Diddy Gets Political
Does 'Rock the Vote' Miss the Boat?
Dialing for Democracy
Isn't Conservative Punk an Oxymoron?

Wired News has a story on Rock the Vote's latest voter outreach method: Instant messaging. The organization has now teamed with private-label instant-message technology developer Meca to develop a Rock the Vote branded IM client designed to encourage youth to vote as the election nears. Rock the Vote has recruited thousands of "street team" volunteers who will reach out by instant message to countless numbers of Rock the Vote members.

Related:

Dialing for Democracy
Rock Your Rights
Voting as a Fashion Statement
Does Rock the Boat Miss the Boat?