Young voters turned out for Tuesday’s presidential election in record numbers, and they voted overwhelmingly for Sen. Barack Obama, according to national exit polls.

Voters between 18 and 29 constituted 22-24 million people at the polls this year, at least 2 million more than last year, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that researches U.S. political engagement.

Obama defeated Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday to become the first black U.S. president.

Experts said this turnout, and the fact that more than twice as many young people voted for Obama as voted for McCain, could have significant implications for the future of American politics.

The shift toward the Democratic party among young and first-time voters may change the way the country votes for decades, political science professor Keith Gaddie said.

“When new voters mobilize toward one particular direction, they stay there,” he said. “The Republicans didn’t just lose an election, they lost an entire generation.”

Gaddie said the issues of this election, coupled with the Obama campaign’s efforts to bring in the youth vote, paid off.

“After four generations of waiting for the youth vote to show up, it finally did and it actually got its choice,” he said.

CIRCLE director Peter Levine said while this election saw only a slight increase in youth turnout based on their share of the overall vote, it inspired a notable increase in youth engagement.

“It’s actually extraordinary,” he said.

Several students said that they were drawn to Obama based on his campaign’s ability to make them feel like they could make a difference.

Nursing junior Dylan Southerland said he voted for Obama because of his capacity to reach younger voters.

“I was raised in a middle class family and thought Obama seemed more concerned with solving problems that would affect the people I care about,” he said. “Obama just had more energy and more momentum to win.”

Southerland also said Obama’s ability to inspire and bring people together helped him get the majority of the youth vote.

“His words definitely have a way of motivating students,” he said. “They definitely motivated me.”

Political science junior Sam Ikard said Obama’s ability to garner youth support comes from his policy stances.

“The fact that [Obama] ran on an anti-war platform was a big deal, because most younger people are against the war in Iraq,” he said.

Ikard said that Obama’s age may have been a determining factor for some voters.

“The fact that we’re going to have a president closer to our age is important,” he said. “McCain, being so many years older, couldn’t connect in the same way. Obama got youth support because he’s grown up in a world more like ours.”