Election Day is quickly approaching, and devoted volunteer students are hectically distributing flyers, posting bumper stickers on scooters and decorating sidewalks with their preferred candidate.
While many in-state students are taking a special interest in the upcoming election, in general, out-of-state students may have less interest in the current race.
In-state residents and students said they might be more aware of the upcoming election because of parental influence and their own concern about the future of the state, whereas out-of-state students may have less stake in the election because they don’t see themselves affected by the election beyond their years as a student at Wisconsin.
Some also feel the campaigns are not geared toward them and that in just four years they will be living elsewhere anyway.
University of Wisconsin freshman Jessica Smith, originally from Minneapolis, said she isn’t concerned about the election.
“I didn’t even know the names of the candidates until I saw a scooter go by me with a McCallum sticker on the back, and several signs were posted in my house about the different candidates,” she said. “Even now, I don’t plan to go to the election. I will only be here for four years, so why should I really care?”
The same attitude pervaded the responses of the majority of out-of-state students interviewed. However, Barbara Keirnoziak, a UW freshman from Minneapolis, said she has an interest in the race despite the fact that she is not originally from Wisconsin.
“Because I spend nine months out of the 12 in Madison, and the decisions these people make might affect me, I care more about them than the candidates for governor at home,” Keirnoziak said.
Debbie Monterrey-Millet, Republican candidate Governor McCallum’s communications director, said out-of-state students are not targeted specifically during the campaign.
“We don’t necessarily focus on out-of-state residents,” she said. “We have absentee ballets. We attempt to teach others about our ideas and attract their votes, but our campaign is not specifically geared toward out-of-state residents.”
The Democrats and Libertarians had similar answers, pointing out that they distribute literature about their nominees and have students promote the candidates and try to influence their peers to vote on Election Day. Basically, their campaigns are geared at attracting as many people as possible, whether they are in-state or out-of-state.
Lesley Sillaman, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Doyle’s communications director, said her campaign attempts to attract students through education and raising awareness.
“We try to reach out to in-state and out-of-state students by educating them about the process of election,” she said. “We bring the candidates to town to do roundtable discussions. We have rallies about student issues to promote a high amount of visibility.”