SALT LAKE CITY -- Pete Ashdown, the high-tech guy who leads an Internet company, invited young people to a club last summer to talk about his U.S. Senate campaign.

"I have 900 MySpace friends. In the end, probably five people were interested in what I had to say," Ashdown recalled. "Others had come for the music. It was a pirate Irish band."

Indeed, young voters mostly seemed to tune out the Democratic candidate, no matter his age -- 39 -- or his career in a cutting-edge industry, traits that might be appealing.

Sen. Orrin Hatch won a sixth term in a landslide Tuesday. An exit poll conducted for The Associated Press showed 55 percent of voters ages 18-29 chose the 72-year-old Utah Republican.

It ran counter to some national trends. For example, 58 percent of voters in that age group chose Democratic candidates for U.S. House, the exit poll found.

"For me, the most important things in voting are national security and defense," said Hatch voter Yana Jurovitzki, 20, a junior studying Russian at the University of Utah. "I don't think the Democratic Party exhibits strong views on that."

Utah, of course, is a Republican state. President Bush got 72 percent of the vote in 2004, and the AP exit poll this week showed an approval rating here of 62 percent.

"Partisan identification is a psychological attachment to a party," said Quin Monson, political scientist at Brigham Young University. "You begin to develop it in childhood as you begin to learn politics from your parents.

"If you're in a Republican environment, you're much more likely to view Republicans favorably. ... There may be a stronger family tie here that makes it more popular," Monson said.

Ashdown said he tried to reach voters of all ages but often talked to young people about Internet privacy and other tech issues.

"It wasn't as important as I thought it was, or they didn't get the message," he said.

Asked about his support among young voters, Hatch said they understood the need to defeat terrorism.

Thirteen percent of people who voted in the Senate race were ages 18-29, according to the exit poll. More than 60 percent were ages 30-59.

Ashdown said there's a perception among young voters that much of government doesn't affect them.

"If there was a draft, maybe they would be more interested in electoral politics. It's hard to see them get charged up," he said.

Adam Burdash, 23, of Salt Lake City said he's registered but has never voted. The convenience-store manager calls it a "waste of time."

"I don't have a whole lot of faith in the system," Burdash said, removing his headphones as he walked west toward downtown.

That reaction doesn't surprise Cassie Carter, 25, who has a civilian job at Hill Air Force Base. She voted for Ashdown.

"I don't think they reach out to my age group," she said of politicians. "They seem more interested in families."

Dan Thomas, 26, a drummer in several bands, was tickled that Ashdown got 30 percent of the vote.

Hatch is a "political machine," Thomas said. "Utah is hopeless for a liberal."

Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International polled 848 Utah voters at 15 precincts. The results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.