Democrats and youth organizers have been crowing for four months about the record turnout among voters under 30. Despite that, voters over 60 are still a much more reliable voting bloc, and they don't need to get a text message to remind them to go to the polls.

The over-60 set has comprised at least a third of the voters in most of this year's primaries, according to exit polls, and 40 percent or more in states such as Ohio, Massachusetts and California. The percentage of the turnout of voters under 30 - while increasing since 2004 - has generally been half that of the older voter bloc.

"The battle over the senior vote will be one of the most intense in the fall because they do come out and vote," said Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics at the University of Minnesota, who has researched patterns among older voters.

"The new is always more interesting, and the new story is about the increase of younger voters, which is very impressive. But any campaign that relies heavily on younger voters is running a risk," Jacobs said. "Younger voters are a difficult lover to have. They're a voting bloc that can betray you and is often quite whimsical. The nastiness that occurs in a campaign is something that could turn young voters off."

Young become disillusioned

When campaigns turn nasty - for example, the North Carolina Republican Party's recent TV ad about Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - young people can grow disillusioned with politics, analysts said. Older voters, having seen negativity for decades, aren't as likely to not vote when a campaign's tone gets harsh.

In a national survey of 514 GOP and independent voters released Thursday, 52 percent of Republicans said they felt irritated while viewing the anti-Obama North Carolina ad. Regardless, 46 percent of Republicans felt it would help McCain's chances in the general election compared to 37 percent of independents, according to the HCD Research survey.

To younger voters, "policy issues matter more than character," said Karlo Barrios Marcelo, a researcher at CIRCLE, which analyzes youth voter trends. "Young people, particularly college students, feel government is corrupt. They're tired of people not getting things done and government being so inefficient."

Candidates value older voters because they show up and, because of their more secure finances, typically give more money to a campaign, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.

Younger people face more hurdles to voting than older people. Under-30 voters change addresses more often than seniors, so they need to more regularly update their registration information. And college students often are residents of a state different from the one where they attend college, further complicating the ballot-punching process.

"This is not a shot at young people," Keeter said. "They just haven't developed the habits of voting yet."

Analysts say the two ends of the age spectrum have different perspectives on the same issues. While voters say the economy is their top issue, youth organizer Marcelo said that "to a younger person that means getting a job, while to an older person that may mean something else."

To an older American, worries about the economy translate into disappearing pensions and lost home equity, said Drew Nannis, a spokesman for AARP, the 39 million-member national organization of Americans over 50. Later this spring, AARP will hold dozens of voter forums across the country to talk to older Americans about health care and financial security.

War more important to youth

The Iraq war is high on the agenda for young people, many of whom may know or be related to someone stationed overseas, Marcelo said. While the older generation might oppose the direction of the war, neither Iraq nor the environment - also a favorite issue among younger voters - ranks high on their list of concerns.

For politicians, it is easier to pinpoint the issues of older Americans and to offer policy prescriptions that fit the problems, Nannis said. "That can be harder to do with younger voters."

Obama acknowledged this while campaigning in Indiana this week, saying he and his staff were looking at ways to reach out to older voters.

"Our problem has less to do with white working-class voters; the problem, to the extent there is a problem, is with older voters," Obama said after getting beaten in this week's Pennsylvania Democratic primary. He said he planned to focus more on older voter issues, such as prescription drugs, pension and retirement security.

So who will older voters support in November?

Seniors favor Clinton

In a Pew Research survey taken last month, Obama (44 percent) and McCain (45 percent) were roughly even among voters over 65. But voters of that vintage vastly preferred Clinton (51 percent) over McCain (40 percent), according to the survey.

However, Gary Langer, a pollster for ABC News, said Thursday that while age has been a dividing line among Democrats in the primaries, "it's equally clear that socioeconomic status, as measured by education and income alike, is independently a factor, and a big one."

Writing on his blog (blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/ 2008/04/is-it-age.html) Thursday, Langer said that "among less well-off white seniors (those with less than $50,000 in household incomes), Clinton has beaten Obama by 70 to 22 percent. Among white seniors with more than $100,000 in household incomes, by contrast, Obama's actually run ahead, by 50 to 45 percent."

Despite the differences, those who study the young voter bloc are pleased that for the first time in recent memory, the candidates are not just paying attention to older voters. Youth organizers sense the three campaigns are more willing to invest in young voters, even if they don't have a long, steady history of voting.

"That's been a worry in years past," said youth researcher Marcelo. "I think that people see there is so much ground to be gained in doing that.

"But," Marcelo said, acknowledging the historical tendency of politicians to court older voters more than younger ones, "it's always tough to think long term."