With President Obama's approval rankings taking a dip, and his head-to-head matchups with Mitt Romney looking awfully close, it may be time for him to break out another secret weapon: pot legalization. So says speculation, at least, drawing comparisons to the Bush campaign's 2004 effort to put gay marriage bans on ballots as a way of motivating the right. Several states will have weed legalization measures on their ballots this fall, and the Democrats are hoping this will energize the youth.
This year there's another incumbent president with modest approval ratings who could turn out his base with controversial ballot measures. ... In 2012, voters in swing states will decide whether they'll allow their fellow citizens to bear joints. Unlike the gay marriage votes, there's no indication that Obama's re-election team is behind any of the pot legalization initiatives, but there are Democrats who are hoping that it will boost turnout among weed's biggest fans: young people.
Getting more young people to vote has long been a Democratic fantasy, since they tend to vote so heavily Democratic. But past attempts to bong the vote have been disappointing, in part because stoners aren't the group anyone would most count on to bother filling out a ballot. Ahead of the 2010 midterms, The Wall Street Journal ran the story, "Democrats Look to Cultivate Pot Vote in 2012," noting that California's pot-legalizing Proposition 19 was being studied to see if similar measures "could energize young, liberal voters in swing states for the 2012 presidential election." But exit polls that year showed no spike in young voter turnout, and marijuana legalization was the top issue for just 1 in 10 voters, the Los Angeles Times reported. (Also: Californians ended up voting down Prop. 19.) Still, there were hopeful signs: 64 percent of voters 18-to-24 supported it, and 52 percent of voters 25-to-29 did. In March, the pro-legalization site Just Say Now suggested that the presidential election will draw more young people to the polls, and they'll vote for pot legalization while they're there.
That being said, several have argued that this could be the year for pro-marijuana turnout. After all, 2011 was the first year more young people smoked pot than cigarettes, the CDC says.
Indeed, nothing motivates young people to vote like concern for their future THC. How comforting to know the next generation has its priorities in order. Obama 2012: Yes we cannabis!