EWMARKET - Eighteen-year-old Matthew Prescott wants to change the world, or at least the way this country chooses political leaders. And he plans to start by giving up his first vote Feb. 1.
''Why am I not voting?'' asks this liberal-leaning Newmarket high school senior, who backs a group encouraging youths not to vote on primary day. ''The main reason is campaign finance reform and soft money from corporations. Until something drastic happens with campaign finance reform, your vote means next to nothing.''
Halfway across the state in Henniker, 21-year-old New England College freshman Eric Luding has cast cynicism aside. In less than two weeks, he is about to vote for the first time in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
''I never voted before. I never had any interest in politics,'' explained Luding, who wants to be a news photographer. ''A lot of kids don't vote because they don't care - my vote doesn't matter anyway - at least that was my mentality.''
Then he had an epiphany during a political science course last semester. He wound up a fervent supporter of Arizona GOP Senator John McCain.
''Not voting makes no sense,'' Luding says now. ''If you don't vote, you're voting anyway by letting someone else choose for you.''
The Seacoast teenager and the college freshman air contrasting views on an issue that has some political analysts wringing their hands.
With young people staying away from the polls in droves, some New Hampshire youth activists are prodding them to buck the tide and vote. At the same time, one group is actually encouraging disaffected youths to stay away from the polls.
Statistics show youth apathy is rampant.
Nationally, fewer than a third of 18- to 20-year-olds (31 percent) and only 33.4 percent of 21- to 24-year-olds voted in the last presidential election in 1996, according to the Federal Election Commission. By contrast, almost half (49 percent) of the 25- to 44-year-olds voted. So did 64 percent of those aged 45 to 64, and 67 percent of those aged 65 and older.
Put another way, 18- to 24-year-olds made up a mere 7.6 percent of the US electorate in 1996, while folks 65 and older made up a whopping 20.3 percent.
''That's a big difference,'' said Andy Smith, head of the UNH Survey Center. ''So if you wonder why older peoples' issues like Medicare and Social Security are catered to in elections, it's because older people vote. Young people just don't vote.''
Smith blames a lack of civics education in American schools. ''Each succeeding generation is voting at a lower rate than their parents,'' he says. ''If your parents voted, odds are you'll vote. But if they didn't vote, the odds are overwhelming you won't either. And we're not really not doing anything culturally or in the schools to change that.''
Several groups are trying to harness dormant political interest in New Hampshire youths.
One calls itself Democracy In Practice: the New Hampshire Youth Voter Alliance. The youth-led, 1 1/2-year-old group is urging New Hampshire high schools to mount voter registration drives, bring in town officials to help students register, and even bus students to the polls.
The group also cosponsored last weekend's youth conclave in Manchester. College and High School Convention 2000 brought 1,000 high school and college students together from all over the country.
''We have no choice but to vote if we care about our democracy,'' said 16-year-old Dan Weeks of Temple, a junior at ConVal High School in Peterborough. ''We really hope to mobilize our voter block. We have about 10,000 high school students in New Hampshire, and many of them will be voting for the first time in a presidential election. If we can mobilize them, we'll have a significant voice.''
Weeks, an organizer for Democracy in Practice, agrees with veteran Democratic operative James Carville, who told students last weekend: ''The decision you've got to make is are you going to go through life getting rained on? Or are you going to go through life making rain?''
Also energized was 23-year-old New England College communications major Lolly Gerlach. ''We saw 1,500 students in a room listening and debating, all on politics, which we really haven't seen since the '60s and '70s,'' said Gerlach, who mounted a successful petition drive to keep Rite Aid out of Henniker a few years ago. ''We were pretty pumped up.''
By contrast, the Dover-based Real Democracy Project is urging young people to shun the polls Feb. 1. The group's policy declaration says the ''current system of financing elections is a violation of human rights.'' Supporters include self-proclaimed UNH anarchists and middle-aged 60s radicals.
''We're urging people not to vote in the upcoming New Hampshire primary because we feel the current electoral system does not afford people genuine choices,'' explained cofounder Robert Goodby of Barrington, a former UNH anthropology professor.
''A lot of people in this country confuse elections with democracy. They're not the same thing,'' Goodby maintains. ''They had elections all the time in the old Soviet Union. We encourage people to be politically active, but that is not limited to voting.''
Young people can send ''a loud message'' by not voting, Goodby said. ''We're hoping to be able to use this as an opportunity to demand genuine campaign finance reform by not participating in a process that is rigged.''
All that alarms others, who warn that not voting is a way to invite totalitarianism, extremism and other undesirable forms of government.
''That's silly,'' said Smith, the UNH survey chief. ''If you want to reform the influence of money in politics, what you need is a smarter voter,'' Smith said. ''To me, that means long-term civics education.''
''I disagree with the premise of nonparticipation as a way to influence government,'' drily objected Clark Hubbard, a UNH political science assistant professor. He suggests ''broadening voter participation'' instead.
In some European democracies, voting is mandatory, says Hubbard. ''You are fined if you don't vote. In this country, given the ideological make-up of American society, that would be unacceptable. It would be seen as very un-American.''
But cynics forget that ''if citizens decided en masse to throw everybody out, big money wouldn't have any influence,'' Hubbard went on. ''Remember, every member of Congress can be thrown out every two years.''
Nancy Snow teaches political science at New England College.
''Increasing civic participation in young adults is what I live and breathe,'' said Snow, who cochaired last weekend's student conference. ''I encourage kids to vote because it helps give them a sense of ownership of the political process, and they may become the future citizen activists our democracy needs.''
Snow is also executive director of the state chapter of Common Cause, a citizen lobby known for promoting campaign finance reform and holding government accountable through citizen participation.
Snow preaches the gospel of political involvement in her classes. ''Politics is that sacred public space where people come together to make society better,'' she said. ''And if you care about leaving society a little better, then you are political.''
Snow, who got Luding and Gerlach involved in politics, says she understands why young people get discouraged and don't vote, and she tells them so. ''I start out by telling them it's perfectly rational. You didn't realize how smart you were. Then I talk about money in politics and they say yeah. And I talk about not voting and they say yeah. Then I say you want to make a difference? You can't sit on your hands. There's no way around it but to get involved.''
Even though, at 16, he can't vote yet, Weeks touts a similar message in high school.
''Part of the whole teenage spirit is rebelling,'' says Weeks. ''If you can sort of twist that the right way to show students that they are letting adults control them by remaining apathetic, then I think you can get them to turn up at the polls.''
