Don't tell Spencer Hattemer that young people don't vote.

By his account, the 18-year-old University of Cincinnati freshman has single-handedly registered more than 600 high school students to vote. Add in the number of voter registration forms he's handed out, and the number could be in the thousands.

Many wouldn't even be eligible to vote in most states, but at least 10 states including Ohio allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they'll be 18 by the general election.

"Just getting registered is a huge step. It's hard to get a high school student to think a month ahead of time," Hattemer said.

Getting them to the polls is an even bigger challenge, he acknowledged.

Election after election, the effect of young voters has been one of the most hyped — and unpredictable — forces in American politics. More than a few presidential ambitions have been thwarted by a youth vote that never materialized.

Then came 2008.

Something this year is accomplishing what previous efforts — MTV's Rock the Vote, Comedy Central, the Internet and rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs' Vote or Die campaign — all failed to do.

Youth turnout tripled in Iowa, where 17-year-olds who would be 18 by Election Day participated in the caucuses, and doubled in New Hampshire, where legislation is pending to allow qualifying 17-year-olds to vote in the presidential primary in 2012.

Young voter turnout was up almost everywhere on Super Tuesday — and in Tennessee it quadrupled, according to researchers at the University of Maryland. They define young voters as 17- to 29-year-olds.

With the Democratic nomination still very much in play as the Ohio primary approaches March 4, those trends are expected to continue.

Even so, young people are voting at half the rates of older generations.

Hattemer supports Barack Obama, the 46-year-old Democratic candidate. Hattemer didn't target Obama supporters for registration, but he did make a calculation that the 17- and 18-year-olds he was registering were more likely to go for the junior senator from Illinois.

Polls bear that out.

According to a Survey USA poll conducted for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Hillary Clinton had a negligible lead among Ohio voters ages 18 to 34: Clinton, 51 percent, Obama, 46 percent — with a plus or minus 8.1-percentage-point margin of error.

But that was Feb. 12.

A week later, it was Obama with 57 percent and Clinton with 37 percent, with a plus or minus 7.7-percentage-point error margin.

Survey USA Chief Executive Jay H. Leve said it looks like the Obama phenomenon has taken hold of Ohio's young voters.