First-time voter Rachael Cleavenger has got a lot on her mind.

A single Vista mother with a 5-month-old daughter, the 20-year-old Palomar College student depends on MediCal and worries about health care.

Her daughter's father is a former Marine with three war zone deployments behind him, and she worries about future deployments for their friends.

And as she moves closer to finishing her speech pathology program at the school, she worries about the job market.

"This election has become personal for me," Cleavenger said Monday. "Now that I have a daughter, my views are not selfish. I think of her and her future. This election could affect her."

Young first-time voters such as Cleavenger said they are eager to participate in a historic election. For weeks, politics have dominated their conversations in coffeehouses and classrooms.

On Monday, Cori Marte carried around a well-thumbed-through ballot guide. The 19-year-old Oceanside resident has researched ballot issues, and kept handwritten notes on her findings in a binder. At the top of the first page, she has written: 2008 My 1st Vote!

"I carry it with me everywhere," said Marte, a Palomar College student. "I've been talking to anybody who will talk about it. I want to know about the issues from all sides."

For Christie Yorke of Vista, 19, her first election is as scary as it is exciting.

"It's stressful. There's a lot of information out there," the student said Thursday at MiraCosta College's Oceanside campus. "But this election is historic. It's important for me to get out and vote. I didn't feel that way in the primary."

Asked about their interests in the upcoming election, many students at local community college campuses pointed to California's most controversial ballot measure: Proposition 8, which seeks to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. If it passes, it would change the state constitution to ban marriage between same-sex partners.

Yorke is doing more than voting for her first election. She volunteered her time.

On Thursday, the brunette was seated at a table at the school, handing out information urging people to vote no on Prop. 8. About 20 feet away, two Yes on 8 supporters had set up their own table.

Students and passers-by generally stopped at one table or the other. Not many stopped at both.

One young woman shouted, "Get a life!" as she passed by the Yes on 8 table. A day earlier, observers said, one person stopped and began yelling at the woman seated at the "Yes on 8" table. Eventually, campus police had to stop by throughout the day to keep the peace.

Like many of her peers, Palomar student Marte is most concerned about Prop. 8. She has a relative who is gay.

"It is immediate and personal to me," she said, adding that she wants to see it fail. "If it gets voted down, maybe he will be more comfortable in his own skin."

For bespectacled blond teenager Vladimir Staples -- who said he is "really anxious" about the ballot measure -- Prop. 8 served as the catalyst to register to vote.

The 19-year-old Palomar student is gay. And he said he will vote against the measure.

The San Diego office of the League of Women Voters said they have spotted an increase in the number of first-time youth voters.

"In the last eight years, it was like pulling teeth trying to get young people to vote," said Jeanne Brown, vice president of administration for the local league. "It was like they felt disenfranchised. It was very discouraging.

"But this time," she said, "that has changed."

Brown credited the Barack Obama campaign with reaching out to youth by using Internet sites such as YouTube, noting that for younger voters, "It really speaks to them."

Hot debates about the election have crept into college classrooms, some said, as well as into everyday chats among friends. Three female basketball players -- all of whom are recently registered voters -- who play for Palomar College said their team's drive back from an Orange County game this week was punctuated by a feisty debate among teammates.

"It was the most heated conversation," said Carlsbad resident Ali Congini, 19, adding that discussions of state propositions on marriage, treatment of animals and teenage abortion drew the most emotion.

Congini's basketball teammate, Oceanside resident Liza McRoberts, said she heeded her mother's wishes and watched all three presidential debates. The 19-year-old MiraCosta student came away ready to vote for John McCain.

"I think young people have to vote," McRoberts said, her long blond hair pulled into a ponytail as she chatted with friends between classes Thursday, "because we are going to be running the country in a few years."

Many of those questioned said that when their parents talk to them about politics, it gets inside their head. The teens may not agree, but they do listen.

"At my home, it's very political," said Lauren Turner, 18, of Ramona. "Mom's a liberal, Dad's a raging conservative. I registered to vote. Now I get my say."

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.