Students watch a live broadcast of Republican presidential candidate, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) speaking to voters. Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Young voters accounted for one in every four votes during the 2008 presidential election, however, their involvement in the 2012 presidential race remains a question mark.

Emerging factors like new voting laws and a struggling economy will determine whether Millennials, a term describing those born from the early 1980s till the early 2000s, will have a significant impact on the 2012 presidential campaign.

“Politicians care about every vote,” said Lynn Vavreck, associate professor of political science at the University of California – Los Angeles. “If college students don’t show up at the polls they will have missed a huge opportunity.”

Long seen as an apathetic voting group, the number of young voters has increased over the past two presidential election cycles, said Abby Kiesa, youth coordinator for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

While young voters significantly impacted Barack Obama’s 2008 bid for office, their participation dropped measurably during 2010, according to University of California – Irvine Professor Martin P. Wattenberg’s book Is Voting For Young People?

Recent political campaigns have used the Internet and social media to connect with the large number of young voters including the College Democrats of America, which boasts a Twitter following of 23,000 people, said President Alejandra Salinas.

Democrats are not the only political party to use social media in an attempt to tap into the college student electorate, however.

“Ron Paul is a testament of the power of young people mobilizing for a candidate,” said Kiesa.

Millenials made up 18% of the voting electorate during 2008, according to USA Today. However, stricter voting laws in many states may affect college student turnout at the polls in the 2012 election.

New voting laws in 14 states will affect approximately 5 million voters in 2012, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Some of these changes include requiring government issued photo IDs, cutting back on early voting, increased difficulty when registering to vote and reversing reforms that allowed ex-convicts to vote.

The state legislatures which instituted the changes have said that they trying to fight voter fraud, however, no such fraud exists in the United States, according to the Brennan Center.

“Statistically speaking you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than participate in voter fraud,” said Maria da Silva, research associate for the Brennan Center. “We’re talking about a solution that is in search of a problem.”

These voting laws will go into affect in 2012 and 2013 and it will be up to nonprofit groups like Rock The Vote to help educate college students on the different state requirements. It remains to be seen whether or not these new laws will affect voter turnout.

The poor economy may also affect voter turnout.

Many of the 20-somethings that voted for Obama in 2008 have since graduated from college, entered the job market and found it difficult to obtain employment. For some of these graduates, they decided to return to school, hoping that higher degrees will equate to a job.

“I don’t think people appreciate how much the politician’s decisions affect their lives,” said Jessica Davidman, a 29-year-old UCLA public health graduate student.

Although certain voting groups such as students, minorities and women tend to vote Democratic, young voters cannot be classified into a single voting bloc.

Though young people have increasingly voted Democratic, millions still voted for Republican nominee John McCain in 2008, said Kiesa.

“Even if your individual vote doesn’t matter, as a group it does,” said Kevin Roberts, a 24-year-old UCLA graduate physics student. “College age students, if we vote in groups, we do matter.”

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