Receiving encouragement to vote from CNN’s “Your Decision 2002” to lawn signs on Bascom Hill, many University of Wisconsin students lined up outside voting booths to make their choices in the 2002 midterm elections.
Although students roam campus encouraging fellow students to exercise their right to vote, the expected turnout for yesterday’s election remained low in Wisconsin and throughout the nation.
“The turnout is going to be pretty bad because of the weather here, but nationally, they are saying between 35 and 40 percent,” said David Canon, a political science professor. “We will probably be close to 50 percent turnout statewide, certainly nothing higher than 50 percent.”
Across the United States, voter turnout has traditionally been higher in the presidential-election years compared to midterm years. Overall, however, the percentage of Americans that vote in either election continues to decrease. Two major problems exist for politics and society with a low turnout in the elections.
The problem, according to Canon, is not with the informed voters making choices between different candidates based on the candidates’ political positions but rather with those who are uninformed.
As a result of uninformed voting processes, Canon said, “democracy is going to lose its meaning. It is not equal to have a candidate win if only 18 percent of the electorate voted for that candidate.”
Canon also cited a lack of legitimacy in the minds of voters.
“So, how can you say that if voter turnout was only 51 percent for the individual elections — almost half the people didn’t even bother to vote,” Canon said. “Who’s speaking for them, and how do we know what they want? For the whole question of legitimacy, having high voter turnout is crucial.”
The specific student count for the turnout at the polls will not be calculated until the end of the week, but volunteers for Vote 2002 Coalition have a positive feeling a fair number of students voted.
“There has been a good reception on the streets and from other volunteers that a lot of students are going to the polls,” said Kal Wysocki, a volunteer at Vote 2002.
Doug Lyerly, a sophomore at UW, feels strongly one vote can be significant.
“I do think that [my vote counts].”
Students also cite strong beliefs on issues as motivation to vote in the election.
“It is your civic duty to vote,” said Alicia Kreul, a UW sophomore. “[Voting] is a right and is something that a lot of people have fought for over the years and that there was a time that hardly anybody could vote, and now that everybody can, everybody should.”
