A young female voter proudly displays her "I voted" sticker outside DC voting precinct 135 November 4, 2008 at the Mount Bethel Baptist Church in the NW section of Washington, DC. TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

While young people have historically been less likely to vote than older people, the young voters showed up to the polls in record numbers during the 2008 elections. Will this trend continue? Who will benefit? What issues matter most to this highly sought after demographic?

Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, will join The Daily Circuit Thursday to discuss the influence young voters in the upcoming election.

"We see signs in early polling that young people are not as engaged now as they were in the same time four years ago," Keeter told NPR. "People entering the job market in [these] last four years have had a very hard time getting work and getting good work -- and that has tended to dampen their enthusiasm for Barack Obama and for the Democrats in general."

So what worked for Obama in 2008? Sarah Burris, political blogger at Future Majority, said it was simple: His campaign asked young people to vote.

"They directly appealed to young voters," she said. "The Obama campaign worked really hard person to person, voter to voter. The best practice for mobilization is always personal contact."

Burris will also join the discussion.