Center for Civic Education
Research and Evaluation



Voting and Political Participation of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution Alumni in the 2004 Election

Suzanne Soule
Center for Civic Education

May 2005


Executive Summary


Between November 04– March 05, the Center conducted a survey of alumni from the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program. Altogether, 522 alumni responded, ranging in age from 18–34. The primary focus of the study was on voting and other forms of political engagement. Due to self-selection by respondents, these findings should be considered as suggestive rather than generalizable to all We the People alumni.

We the People alumni were compared with a national probability study from the 2004 National Election Studies (NES) of other young Americans their age. In other questions, alumni were also compared with over 289,000 American college freshmen (The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2004). Among alumni eligible to vote in 2004, key findings are:

In summary, We the People alumni surveyed are better informed and more politically engaged than their peers.



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