Today, Almodova lives in her own apartment in Waikiki and is juggling work while studying fashion technology at Honolulu Community College. She had been leaning toward President Bush, then Sen. John Kerry; then she was undecided; and now, honestly, all she knows is that she plans to vote today.

"I didn't realize how scary it can be to vote because it can change your future so much," Al-

modova said. "I guess it's time for a change — unless I go to the polls and my mind just switches right there."

Thousands more young people across the nation have registered to vote this year and many, like Almodova, will be voting for the first time. The increase in newly registered voters of all ages — including 21,000 in Hawai'i since the September primary — could have an influence in the election if they break tradition and show up in higher numbers.

Malia Lazu, a Kaiser High School graduate who is the field director for the Young Voter Alliance, which is targeting young Democrats in five battleground states, said she believes the youth vote will be higher this year. Only about a third of young voters nationally cast ballots in the last presidential election in 2000.

"What's different this year is that it's strategic. It's door knocking. It's using voter lists. It's not just about saying that voting is cool because Madonna or somebody says so," said Lazu.

"The messenger is just as important as the message. It needs to be peer-to-peer and it has to be culturally based."

The Advertiser's Hawai'i Poll, taken in mid-October, found that people 35 and under were about evenly split between Bush and Kerry. Like older voters, they believe that the Bush administration misled the nation about the war in Iraq and that the war has not made the United States safer but were not flocking to Kerry.

The Advertiser has been speaking with several young residents eligible to vote for the first time this year about politics and the reasons behind their choices.

Fayez Rumi, a student at the University of Hawai'iiManoa, settled on Kerry after the Democratic National Convention in July but his vote is more of a vote against Bush. "I will be voting for John Kerry because Bush has given the United States a bad reputation internationally," he said. "I am not completely convinced that Kerry will be able to do a much better job than Bush. However, Bush has done enough to ruin this country and must be replaced."

Krista Scott, from Ha'iku, Maui, who is now studying political science at the University of Portland, watched the presidential debates and did her own research on the Internet because she wanted to make an informed choice. "Every day you make a choice and cast your vote on life decisions, but it isn't every day that you get to vote for president," she said.

Scott voted for Sen. John Edwards, the eventual Democratic vice presidential nominee, for president in the Hawai'i caucuses in February but confessed yesterday that she had been leaning toward Bush all along.

She said she came back home for her fall break with her absentee ballot and took another look at the issues, particularly where the candidates stood on abortion, stem-cell research and the war in Iraq.

"I didn't know who I was going to vote for until I had the ballot in my hand," Scott said. "I guess I have to tell you, right? I voted for Kerry."