Voter registration efforts and voter awareness campaigns have reached a fever pitch in this election year that many consider a critical juncture in the modern history of this country. Many of these efforts are aimed at encouraging young people - especially non-registered voters, college-age voters and recent college graduates - to exercise their constitutional right to vote. In a tight election year, with issues at stake that may affect the 18- to 29-year-old age group, their presence at the polls this November may be more influential than ever before.

The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies has released a report on the 18- to 29-year-old population The report uses trend data over the last three presidential cycles in political attitudes of college freshmen, the majority of whom are now eligible to vote.

The report also analyzes the views of early career college graduates and their likelihood of voting.

For the research report and its methodology, visit www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html.

The report reveals several key findings:

Entering college freshmen over the last three presidential election cycles

Support for increases in military spending among entering college freshmen has declined to 39 percent since a peak of 45 percent in 2002, indicating concern regarding military involvement is a key issue for this population. Solid majorities have typically opposed military spending in the past.

In states where the marital legal status for same-sex couples is on the ballot, college students can have a decisive vote, since the majority (59 percent in 2003) and a growing number of entering college students supports this view since the institute began monitoring the item in 1997.

Support for abolishing the death penalty has been growing steadily in the past decade to the point where one-third now support abolition, from a low of 21 percent in 1994.

Early career college graduates

Results show majority support for increasing federal initiatives to control environmental pollution (75 percent) and maintaining the legal right to an abortion (65 percent), but these are not the issues that determine the difference between frequent, occasional or non-voters among early career college graduates.

On tax issues, occasional voters share the view with frequent voters that the wealthy should pay a larger share of the taxes than they do now, an aspect of the Kerry-Edwards plan for financing health care reform and other domestic programs.

Occasional voters are more likely than frequent voters to support the view that a national health care plan is needed to help meet everybody's costs.

A wide majority of early career college graduates (83 percent) favor federal control over the sale of handguns. However, occasional voters and non-voters are more likely than frequent voters to support this view strongly.

"The institute has monitored these attitudes among college students for years and we see that many are issues where occasional voters, many of whom are women, and college students can make a difference when they go to the polls next week," said Sylvia Hurtado, director of the institute and UCLA education professor. "Those who have a history of voting are likely to turn out again, but it is also possible that new voters will turn out in greater numbers."

Alexander Astin, principal investigator of the study on early career college graduates and founding director of the institute, said, "The attitudes of young college graduates provide insight into a group who may be more invested in specific policies such as taxes, health care and other issues that generally gain center stage for adults in their late 20s. We are studying the civic engagement of this cohort to get a better handle on their experiences during and after college."

In the study of early career college graduates, frequent voters were those who reported they regularly turn out for local and state elections or frequently voted in national elections, occasional voters do not regularly turn out for any type of election but indicated they had voted since entering college, while others who reported they never voted were classified as non-voters.

The report builds on the annual collection of data on entering college students and subsequent follow-up studies as part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the nation's longest-running survey of college students. Since 1966 the program has monitored college freshman trends through its annual freshman survey, collecting data from more than 1,800 institutions and 11 million students over the years.

One of 11 professional schools at UCLA, the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies consists of two academic departments, the department of education and the department of information studies. The Graduate School of Education was founded in 1939 and was UCLA's first professional school. The Graduate School of Library Service was founded in 1958. The two schools merged in 1994, forming the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. UCLA is the only major research university in the country that combines departments of education and information studies. The school shares its findings with practicing educators and information professionals through classes, seminars and workshops offered at UCLA and in the community, and through reports, studies and articles featured in publications nationwide.