It's a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Washington. Pop music can be heard from the meadow behind the White House. The line that college students Noah and Liam are waiting in slowly but surely inches forward. Like many of the tens of thousands of others here, the two friends are at the Ellipse to see Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris deliver a key speech.

The weather and the mood are good, so nobody is bothered by waiting a few hours to get a spot near the stage. A victory for Harris would have historical implications — she would become the first woman ever voted into the White House.

Liam, 21, finds the atmosphere exciting. "We need change in the country and I think a woman could do that," he said. His friend Noah, 20, agrees. What particularly worries Noah about Republican nominee Donald Trump are concerns about "individual rights and his foreign policy."

Both Liam and Noah belong to a hotly contested group of voters this election cycle — young males. In the past, men under 30 have tended to stay home on Election Day. That could be different this time around: an October poll conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School saw 56% of males — among a group 2,000 voters between the ages of 18-29 — reply "definitely" when asked if they planned to vote in this........

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