News

Turnout at UW wards low yet again, high on city’s west side

Workers at campus polling places call voter traffic slow

Despite contested races on both the local and state level on the ballot during Tuesday’s election, voter turnout remained relatively low near the University of Wisconsin campus.

Poll workers at Gordon Commons, Memorial Union, Memorial Library and the Lowell Center all reported relatively low voter traffic.

“It’s almost always slow,” Gordon Commons chief election inspector Adam Young said of the spring elections. “That is not a reflection of people running for office at all. … It’s really hard to get people to get out to vote for them in local offices.”

To help encourage an increase in voter turnout, Young advocated for an increase of campaigning in the student resident halls, arguing students deserve the same sort of contact the rest of the citizens in Madison get.

According to chief inspector Jim Fortner, the Memorial Union poll locations saw an increase in voters during the lunch hour and toward the end of the afternoon when classes were let out, but the site saw a relatively low turnout overall.

Poll workers at the Lowell Center and Memorial Library reported a higher turnout than in previous years, though the total turnout remained in range of 200 voters.

“This is pretty good, there have been times with 50 people here,” Diane Doughman, vice chair of the city’s 46th ward said. “Mostly the presidential and midterm elections will bring out a lot of voters.”

Doughman also noted the increase in non-student voters using Memorial Library as their polling location in recent years.

Steve Walker, inspector at the Lowell Center, also said the turnout was higher than similar elections in previous years but still remained low overall.

Freshman roommates Melanie Zaferos and Elizabeth Haller both decided to vote Tuesday after one of their friends joined candidate Mark Woulf’s campaign and encouraged them to vote.

According to Zaferos, both Woulf and Alder-elect Bryon Eagon, visited the dorms as part of campaign outreach to attract votes, including hosting events that featured free root beer floats.

Despite the efforts, however, both Zaferos and Haller said they were unaware of many students who actually voted. The dorms did nothing to encourage the residents about the election or the issues.

In spite of the overall low turnout in the UW area, some areas of Madison experienced higher than expected turnouts, forcing poll workers to resort to ballots that could not be run through the electronic tabulator and had to be hand-counted by poll workers, according to the city clerk’s office.

Overall turnout of eligible voters in Dane County was 27.4 percent, officials said early this morning.

On Friday, the state’s Government Accountability Board estimated a statewide voter turnout of 20 percent, calculated using figures from previous elections, according to GAB spokesperson Kyle Richmond.