Young voters are more excited than ever to get involved in this year’s presidential election. The 2004 campaign, with its “Vote or Die” slogan, pales in comparison to youth participation four years later. I guess that goes to show you that voters don’t like to get forced into the voting booth.

This year, young voters are stepping up to the political plate on their own terms, and have made political awareness the new “in” thing. I have to admit, it’s addicting to read the papers and stay glued to the news for any information about presidential-hopefuls. Although Facebook and MySpace have jumped on the bandwagon for youth participation, there is still the stigma that just-turned legal voters are too impressionable and naïve about politics to have much clout in their support for a particular candidate. That’s why you have to know how to get in the know in politics.

First of all, don’t expect to know everything about the political atmosphere or your candidate of choice. There are some people who do this for a living, such as political analysts. They’re the people who get interviewed by a news station in hopes of predicting voter turnout among other information. Your job right now is school and work, which limits the amount of time you can devote to keeping up with the campaign trail.

Whenever you do have the time, use more than one source of information, because some news networks or papers will lean toward a certain side. Find more than one reliable media to follow the latest news. Local newspapers are helpful too, if you want to learn what people around you think is important.

Another helpful place to look is in the editorials, online blogs, and other media where opinions are had (like this one!). These are great places to see what other people have to say about recent occurrences in politics. It breaks the monotony of newspaper articles that try to stay professional and objective for every story. Opinion-based news such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report offer a piece of news peppered with mocking comedy. A word of advic: Don’t rely on this for political updates. They tend to pick favorites and sometimes belittle a serious issue. You should try to be as objective as you can while choosing your campaign favorite.

Politics is a sensitive topic, and each individual has a different idea of current issues. So don’t get upset if someone doesn’t share your views about a candidate. A bad stereotype of young voters is their aggressive and often single-minded support for president hopefuls. Keep in mind that not everyone has the same ideas as yours, and if you are going to talk about politics, be polite and let everyone speak their minds before you offer a rebuttal.

Furthermore, you can’t just pick a candidate because your friends tell you to, It takes work to figure out to whom you want to give your vote. It takes research and an idea of the main political issues at hand. Erroneous assumptions and quick side-taking is just the kind of behavior in young voters that political analysts expect, thereby giving little respect from them. So give it time and be a grown-up about it, to avoid presidential cam-pain.