I don't know why this myth persists, but it is nothing but a myth.

The one election in which younger voters came out in large numbers (2018) Sanders's followers were decimated and moderates won all over the country.

Sanders does NOT bring out younger voters.

re: "Sanders does NOT bring out younger voters." -- Yes, that is true, he's not bringing them out in the numbers he expected.

re: "Sanders's strength is NOT younger voters." -- No, that is false, the younger voters who DO come out have overwhelmingly gone for Sanders over Biden, making them his strength, while of course the older voters have gone overwhelmingly for Biden.

Sanders has been doing better than Biden with voters under 45, Biden has been doing better with 45+. If those over 60 turn out in smaller than usual numbers due to COVD-19 fears, then even without Sanders turning out any more voters, those under 45 will now make up a greater percentage of the votes and that would help Sanders.

Here are the stats I'm talking about:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/politics/youth-vote-sanders-biden-super-tuesday/index.html

that is 35% being younger than 42, (with presumably a much smaller percentage in their twenties and thrities) he'd still need to bring out an enormous number of "youth" to overcome older voters, even if a sizeable proportion of older voters stay home.

And he's never done this. And he never will.

...for them to represent a substantially larger percentage of the voting total, IF a substantial number of the usual over-65 voters choose to stay home. That can alter the delegate distribution. That's my point.

Not that I'm expecting any Sanders landslide Tuesday regardless. His polling has been going down, and these states are not so friendly toward him to begin with. But if turnout is down for older (Biden-leading) voters, he could have a stronger showing than he might have had otherwise. because a greater percentage of those who DO vote will be from the younger/Sanders-leaning demographic.

kids voting for him.

From the linked article...

argument, where BS racks up all those masses of delegates.

That's totally going to happen. You wait for it.

I don't know where your 6% figure is from, but I provided the source for my numbers.

Biden benefitted by pulling him along. Sanders should get the same ease.

Thanks for the awesome reply.

SMFH

Because of the way he ran his campaign. His top aides, betting on a group of voters that didn't show up to vote, his magical mystery tour of what he wants & list the goes on & on.

Have a beautiful Democratic Establishment Day!

foolishness that Trump traffics in.

be worse for Sanders than the polls suggest, and the polls suggest a blowout for Biden. I know older voters...I belong to things that include voters of all ages...book club, bridge (I love bridge)etc...although I am not of the that age...most older voters I know feel...if I get this and die...I die...In the meantime while I am here I will do my best to make it a better place for those I leave behind and that means nominating Biden who can win a General, thus ending the primary officially. Although it is already over mathematically. I would add that, the nursing homes in Ohio voted two weeks ago...early voting. My sis in law who is in one reported that she has found no one in her home who voted for Sanders. ...bookmarking this for Tuesday.

for Sanders as thought - or that they vote for moderates (2018)

usual, they voted for moderates. And the Bernie-backed candidates and Our Revolution candidates were demolished.

It's all a lot of smoke and mirrors. BS has been saying forever that he can rally younger voters, but the opposite has been true forever.

...seen discussed, Because this is, you know, a discussion board.

There is a pic of Joe in my post because, as the text says, "if I were to vote in a presidential primary today, I would vote for Joe Biden." Though I wish it could still say Elizabeth Warren.

Though I respect your vow to support Biden in the General. If you are more oriented toward Sanders in the primary, you should declare that and tell people why you switched. I don't bet for good reason, maybe now you understand why.

Both have their strengths and weaknesses. But I took the question literally. If I had to vote today, who would I pick? And while it's not a blowout, my feeling is that Joe would probably be stronger against Trump, and a more effective president, and better able to handle the transition from the Trump nightmare (a topic for another post, perhaps).

Though I don't get your reference to betting!

end up in a corner that they don't want to be in.

I get where you are, you are more for Biden, but Sanders has a warm spot in your heart also' maybe because of the policies that he talks about (but Warren would have been more likely to make realities).

The bet was that Bernie was going to do well (that person's wager), if not, the person would switch to Biden. So Biden is the chosen candidate, but the person is clearly very pro-Sanders. I am ok with the person switching the candidate choice back to Sanders, leaving only true supporters of Biden in the primary and beyond with him as their candidate of choice. The person has clearly stated that he or she will support Biden 100% in the General, and I have seen nothing to indicate that pledge isn't true.

Anyone waiting until election day to vote if they have other options is taking a big risk.

around 11. I was there for about 4 minutes and saw only older voters.

in life. Younger people often fail to see that and gain some wisdom.

Any excuse is enough for them. Older people will vote. Perhaps in slightly lower numbers, but they'll vote.

Biden will do just fine. He's getting votes from all age groups, you know?

Everyone gets votes from all age groups. But not in even proportions.

From the Super Tuesday results discussed at https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/politics/youth-vote-sanders-biden-super-tuesday/index.html

did in 2016, and they make up only a small fraction of the total voter count.

It doesn't matter what percentage of them votes for whom, if only a small percentage of them turns out to vote.

Numbers matter. Go look some of them up.

No need to be snide. Obviously, I did look up numbers, I provided a link.

Besides the passage I quoted, the article also points out that, yes, older people voted in greater numbers than younger, which of course is why Biden wins despite Sanders doing so much better among younger voters. As the article says, "In no Super Tuesday state with an exit poll did those under 45 years old make up more than 42% of voters. Those under 45 years old were just 35% of the electorate in the median state."

My point was, imagine now that the number of voters over 60 or over 65 drop enough that, even with NO additional turnout of people under 45, the people under 45 now end up making up, say, 50-60% of the voters instead of the lower percentage they normally make up. That could alter the delegate distribution.

Across the board voters are not turning up for sanders.

Joe is the one bringing in new voters. He over performs as sanders under performs.

To try and spin the pandemic on how it will play out is unknown! The numbers here are the only stats that are a known

is what they do in all elections, regardless of the level. Because they have seen the consequences of not voting, or of setting impossible to achieve purity standards.

However, I am hoping that the desire to remove Donald Trump will allow people to patriotically go to the polls and vote for their preferred candidate. Yet, this is another reason why Vote-By-Mail should be implemented in every state and for every election as soon as possible. We have it here in Arizona and it works well. Our Presidential Preference election is this Tuesday, but I have already voted for Biden weeks ago.

This Tuesday, my 84-year-old mother will be working as an election supervisor here in Arizona--working a 15 hour day on her feet so that people can vote. Her hands will be washed, hand sanitizer will be flowing regularly, she and all of the election staff will be wearing gloves, and she will keep her distance. Our nation has fought numerous wars to maintain our Democracy and our right to vote. I feel OK encouraging people to vote as long as they take proper precautions.

My mom has told her staff to all bring gloves for the election. I recommend everyone who does not have gloves to get some and to wear them whenever they go out, and to wash their hands before they put on their gloves. I am unwilling to let coronavirus deprive America of our democracy.

Those in that age group will likely know the options available to them if they don't want to vote in person. Whether they take advantage of those options I don't know.

...or at least *I* don't know the answers. e.g. How many of Tuesday's states had early voting? What was the date cutoff (specifically, could people vote as recently as these last couple of days when there has been a lot more awareness that older people should try to stay home as much as possible)? What percentage of seniors tend to do early voting and/or are familiar with and comfortable doing it?

Absentee ballots can be dropped off through Tuesday.

It's not a concern here.

well. I am in the Cleveland area. The nursing homes had people come into help them vote two weeks ago.

My anecdotal evidence: I don’t have a single friend over 60 in Florida who has not already voted

They, like me, considered it an essential trip outside the home or they mailed their ballot

The FL Democratic party had a big vote by mail push, and early voting just ended.

Mail-in ballots have to go through the USPS, if they are not dropped off at the registrar's office. All it takes in November is for another MAGA bomber of MAGA threatener to show up in November before Election Day and close down post offices, to hand Trump Florida, because people mailed in ballots instead of doing in-person early voting on one of the 11 days that Florida has such voting.

Checked on the SOE website last week and saw that they had been received. It's not that hard.

Universities are closing and its spring break. They go home. Those who vote usually are registered in the college town. If they go home, they won't vote.

...the percentage of under-45 voters who are in college is small. Which I mention because the stats I've been referencing show that Sanders does much better than Biden with voters under 45, not merely those 18-21.

And BTW, those 18-21 year olds who go away to school and come back to their parents' homes when school is closed are probably a minority even among 18-21 year olds. Many 18-21 year olds don't go to college at all. Many who DO go to college go to local community colleges or commuter schools. And even many who have gone away actually establish full-time (non-dorm) residence in their new city, especially in their later years.

Spring break could also have some of the opposite effect of what you're talking about (or what it usually would). Kids who would normally go away for spring break may now be staying put because so many travel events are being cancelled.

So... yeah, you've brought up another interesting factor... and another bunch of unknowns.

Its creating a huge mess. Kids have to evacuate within short notice and go home.

If you want to fight this, you need to deal with minor discomforts.

We were talking about the fact kids will go home since they cant stay in the dorms. Hence, they may have problems voting because they are probably registered in the college town.
Universities are doing the right thing but it was on short notice and is creating a lot of disruption.

as evidenced by the numbers I have linked to and referenced numerous times in this thread.

Early voting people trickle in. No lines. That's what I did. I voted for Elizabeth Warren BTW.

same in Florida

Biden's Victory margins will be smaller on Tuesday for example in Florida instead of winning by 60% he'll only win by 40%

Biden will not lose any states due to the decrease of seniors coming out because they stay home due to the virus

That said, while (to use your example) winning by 40 points instead of 60 points would mean fewer delegates for Biden and more for Sanders, it still leaves Biden getting more delegates than Sanders.

And I guess the possibility of Bernie not reaching viability goes out the window as well. That sucks. Florida could have been a Biden sweep!! Hopefully the nights states sweep will be enough to send a message

inevitable, which is the same game he played in 2016.

He should just suspend already and get it over with.

I was canvassing and it went late. Those who think Corona will save Sanders are wrong. The young have even more reason to stay home and I know people now in their early 30's who have Corona and are in intensive care in critical condition. This could hurt everyone...in order to save the planet and our Republic, we must end this primary by voting and move on to defeating Trump.

We understand the terror this administration poses to our democracy. I am living in Oklahoma, but am originally from Illinois and lived in 4 other states. I have checked in with my friends in states that vote on Tuesday, many of them have chosen absentee ballots in order to avoid going to vote, but others say they are going to vote no matter what. Sorry Bernie, we are going to do what is right for our party and the country.

Florida allows anyone of any any for any reason, to vote from home and we have been early voting for weeks. I voted 2 weeks ago, I am not sure same day voting here will drop enough to make a huge difference

I am of the opinion that the primaries should be delayed until we at least know what's going on with this virus. It's just not fair to those who are potentially more vulnerable.

our nominee to continue.

So they're not about to let COVID19 scare them away from the polls. Plus theres mail-in option. Never count older generations out. The country post WWII was built on their backs.

Ahead of time so we can check before and after to confirm that we haven't been kicked off the rolls.

Additionally, a friend is taking some of her elderly neighbors to vote early.

I watched Fox yesterday, and a bit the day before. Fox started covering the epidemic all day, with some pro-Trump/anti-Dem spin, but mostly pretending denial never happened. It's short notice for this Tuesday, but here's hoping for even a very slight damping effect on Republican turnout.

With tea.

One set is a pair of gay men in late middle age from Tennessee. They'll be over for sure, but...too soon. Hope, hope.

I'll be voting Tuesday In Florida. It's just what our generation does.

and don't touch your face. People should not give up their vote over this.

I saw a total of around 8 other voters during the ~4 minutes that I was there. Every single one looked elderly. I think older voters will vote, likely early in the day before the after work rush, if they have not already voted early.