It is doubtful students will be rushing to the polls today, according to results from previous elections — the primary held Feb. 18 drew only seven voters from the ward where the Lakeshore dorms are located. But this is nothing new; historically, students do not show up on Election Day.
“Students always have a low relative turnout compared to older people, and in fact, turnout climbs with just about every year of age from 18 to about 65 or 70,” said UW political science professor Charles Franklin.
Franklin said in 1972, when 18-year-olds were first given the right to vote, it was largely assumed their votes would dramatically affect the outcome of the election, but he said that was hardly the case. Few students turned out that day, and not much has changed over the years.
Franklin said he understands many students do not feel connected to the community, and they often are not at a point in their lives where voting is a priority.
“You don’t have a job, you don’t own a house, you don’t have kids in school,” he said. “So there’s not very much direct investment in the community when you’re young.”
Megan Mooney, a member of the College Democrats of Madison, said she thinks many students do not realize how much the local elections may impact them.
“You could be electing somebody in your district to help you out, serve you better,” she said.
Jay Heck, executive director of the Common Cause in Wisconsin, said he does not blame students for their lack of interest. He said campaigns rarely focus on students, which leaves them feeling even more isolated from the voting process.
“I think for the most part, legislative and congressional candidates tend to ignore students because they figure that they’re either not going to bother to vote, or they’re going to vote from their hometown, and they’re so dispersed that they don’t matter,” he said.
However, both Heck and Franklin pointed to the 2000 congressional campaigns of Tammy Baldwin and UW history professor John Sharpless as ones that worked hard to mobilize the student vote. They had people all over the campus urging students to exercise their right to vote and informing them of how to do just that.
“Baldwin and Sharpless have been the exception to the rule — they’ve gone after the student vote, and I think they’ve made a real effort to appeal to student issues and to talk to students about student concerns,” Heck said.
The benefits of tapping into the student population can be substantial for candidates because of the sheer number of students.
“I think just a little bit of organization and a little bit of concentration on the student vote can go a long way towards victory because one of the great things about organizing the campus is you go into a dorm and there’s potentially several hundred voters there,” Heck said.
However, many of those potential voters are unaware of when, where or how to vote. Heck said some students do not know they can vote in Wisconsin, even if they are not originally from here. They simply need to have lived here for 10 days and bring proof of their address to the polls. Making it simple for students may be the key to actually getting them to cast their votes.
Susan Strzelec, chair of UW’s College Republicans, said the elections need to be more publicized. She said media such as the student newspapers, local newspapers, candidate literature, and television can all help inform students of upcoming elections.
Franklin said the issue is not why students choose not to vote, but rather, why they are criticized for exercising that right.
“People ought to be free to choose for themselves whether they’re going to participate or not,” he said. “To me, part of freedom is not having to vote if you don’t want to.”
