hen Adam Sonenshein was in the sixth grade, a teacher assigned him to follow the presidential race between Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republican George Bush. For the 12-year-old, politics was cool.
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In an effort to attract young voters to election polls this November, several Web sites are offering information to would-be-voters. Here are a few:
www.youthvote2000.org - targeted to 18-to 30-year olds
www.freedomchannel.com - offers video views of candidates and issues
www.voter.com - allows visitors to personalize the information they want on candidates, issues, elected officials, and organizations
www.dnet.org - operated by the League of Women Voters and the Center for Governmental Studies
www.vote-smart.org - run by Project Vote Smart, it tracks over 13,000 legislators at both state and federal levels
election2000.aol.com - allows visitors to match their interest to a presidential candidate and compare the candidates to each other
www.rockthevote.org - founded by recording artists originally as a campaign against censorship; it expanded to advocate the politcal empowerment of young adults
SOURCE: Globe staff research
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But now, 12 years later, Sonenshein and his peers don't have the threat of an unfavorable grade on their report card forcing them to pay attention, and encouraging them to be less apathetic and disillusioned.
Different times require different tactics. And so political advocates are taking the talk of politics directly to what most grabs the attention of Americans ages 18 to 25 - the World Wide Web.
''Because they've said they want more information on the Internet, we're designing a huge new Web site that will focus on providing the information that they're interested in,'' said Adelaide Elm of Project Vote Smart, which surveyed, in conjunction with Pew Charitable Trust, 18- to 25-year-olds. What they found: 70 percent said the Internet is the most useful source for news information.
Political organizations and political candidates across the country, then, are scrambling during this presidential election year to make their Web sites more interactive, more user friendly, and just more.
A Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism survey found that 58 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds who responded don't pay attention to political stories in the newspaper or on television. Those results prompted the journalism school to create a Web site that provides political news and lets young people participate in discussions.
A feature of Project Vote Smart's site is a National Political Awareness Test that measures a candidate's position on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, crime, and welfare. Anyone linking to the site will be able to take the test and see how their answers compare with those of candidates.
''It's like `The Dating Game,''' said Aili Langseth, 24, who runs the youth inclusion program at Project Vote Smart that oversees the new Web site. ''It will match you up with candidates to see who most closely fits with you.''
For the Rock the Vote campaign, which succeeded in its ''rebirth of cool'' politics in 1992, the challenge to keep young people involved is as big as ever.
''We're working with a number of other organizations to call on candidates to speak directly to young people,'' said Alison Byrne Fields, campaign manager for Rock the Vote, which, she says, is focusing on political issues. ''We're drawing them in that way and pointing them in the right direction,'' she said.
During the last presidential election, the program's Web site was the first to offer on-line voter registration, a returning feature for Campaign 2000, along with snapshots of the issues and the names of organizations tackling those issues. Rock the Vote, founded by recording artists in 1990, paired with MTV's Choose or Lose campaign to register 37,000 voters in 1996. MTV plans to kick off this year's Choose or Lose campaign next week with a concert at New Hampshire College.
According to US Census data, in 1996, 45.6 percent of an estimated 10.8 million 18- to 20-year-olds and 51.2 percent of the nation's 13.9 million 21- to 24-year-olds were registered to vote. But only 31.2 percent of those under age 21 and 24.2 percent of 21- to 24-year-olds voted in the 1996 presidential elections.
Contrary to popular belief, young people don't magically become older adults who vote, said Fields.
''One of the points that should be made in all of this is that it's not solely a youth issue,'' she said. ''It's really important to address the fact that voting is a learned behavior that's influenced by the way your parents vote. It should not be assumed that young people will grow into voting.''
The Internet, Fields says, has empowered many college students across the country. ''It's a sense of community that exists on the Web that young people have a greater sense of than adults.''
Recently, dozens of nonpartisan organizations came together to form a coalition that encourages civic participation among young people. The result is youthvote2000, a network of over 35 organizations including Black Youth Vote and the League of Women Voters that demands accountability from politicians on issues of importance to youth.
And candidates seem to be responding. Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes created e-Precincts. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley's campaign ranks top among candidate Internet fund-raisers. US Representative Tammy Baldwin reached the bulk of potential voters in her district - college students in Madison, Wisc. - via the Internet as well.
''They're definitely recognizing that they have to do it,'' said Fields. ''They're recognizing that it's a fairly economical way to get their message out there and to create a standard message for potential voters and the press.''
One campaign that capitalized on both public interaction and the Internet was Jesse Ventura's successful 1998 gubernatorial bid in Minnesota. Volunteers were mobilized and the voting public was educated with the help of www.jesseventura.org. Ventura posted all of his public policy positions on the site.
''We used the Internet and e-mail in a combination that had not previously been used before,'' said Phil Madsen, Web master for the Ventura campaign site.
The Web site, which cost under $200 to establish, raised over $50,000 for Ventura's campaign. There are those, however, who say that getting young people enthusiastic about voting has less to do with getting information on the Internet than with political candidates treating young adults as viable citizens.
''[Jesse Ventura] was the only candidate not treating youth as a problem to be solved. Ventura viewed the youth as people who were allies in the campaign to help him get elected, and the kids responded to that by the thousands,'' Madsen said. ''It's not about the Internet, it's about the relationship you have.''
''A lot of news organizations have figured out younger voters are future readers,'' said Deborah Potter, executive director of NewsLab, a Washington-based nonprofit that works with local television news on reporting. ''My sense is newsrooms across the country are waking up to this issue. I think the Internet is a way of reaching them that hasn't happened before.''
Phil Attey, director of the Communications and Policy Technology Network, agrees.
''It's creating a more educated group of voters. I think the youth are going to be much more up on the issues than traditional voters. The better sites provide the candidates' stance on every issue and how to get involved with their campaign,'' said Attey, head of the trade organization for professionals who use the Internet for public affairs, policy, and political work.
Politicians aren't the only ones paying attention. Duke University offers a class on the role and influence of the Internet on this year's political race. Statistics and research show the younger generation craves information that is easy to access, and results that are visible.
''I think they're unsure whether [their vote] would really count. You hear a lot about a loss of faith in the political process,'' said Melissa Jones, 20, a political science student at Northeastern University.
''Young people feel politics have nothing to do with them,'' said Robyn Barros, 19, a second-year Northeastern political science student. ''I think it's a lack of knowledge about how the government works. Once you understand that, you're more likely to be involved.''
Sonenshein, quality control supervisor for Project Vote Smart, hopes to help in that process.
''I was thinking how important it is for politics to be cool again for young people to be a part of it,'' he said. ''Our generation romanticizes the late-'60s activist period. I think a lot of that happened because once your friend is doing it, you want to be involved, too.''
Fields, the Rock the Vote campaign manager, points to three key steps needed to break the cycle of voter apathy: candidates should speak directly to young people and listen to them, the young need to ''get louder and take advantage of'' the opportunity to vote, and there needs to be a sense of responsibility from the media.
''I think there's some space to present a more positive image of who young people are and the media has a role in that as well,'' said Fields. ''If they start believing what they read about themselves, then we're all in trouble.''
