Students MIA at the Polls
Only 30% turn out to vote

By Olivia Tattory

During late afternoon hours at Lawrence Senior Center on Darrah Lane, the voting center for those registered in Lawrenceville, there was a scattered crowd of voters — but none under the age of 50.

This is not hard to believe, because according to a poll conducted by The Rider News, only 30 percent of 165 students surveyed cast their votes during this year’s crucial midterm elections.

“I’m just lazy … no particular reason I didn’t vote,” said one survey participant.

Although the Lawrence Senior Center is only a quick five-minute drive, and the process of casting a ballot could be less than a minute, students still found it difficult to find time to vote. The polls in New Jersey were open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“I didn’t vote because I didn’t have time since I’m a college student,” said another survey participant.

From a national perspective, it was actually the largest young voter participation in a congressional election in at least 20 years, according to Reuters. The overall turnout of voters under 30 was 24 percent – even lower than Rider’s.

Yet, with help from the University, the number of student voters on Rider’s two campuses might have been increased, based on results from the non-systematic poll of students with anonymous survey sheets.

Among the 116 students who responded that they did not vote, 56 said they were unaware that they could register to vote locally in Lawrenceville. Of those 56 non-voters, 29 of them, almost 52 percent, said they would have been more inclined to vote if they knew they could register and vote in Lawrenceville — a solution for several survey participants who complained that they couldn’t find the time to drive home.

“I was not aware of the fact that I could register to vote in Lawrenceville,” said one student. “If I had known that, I would have voted.”

For those who do not own vehicles, the University did not provide any transportation to and from the local polls, as one campus organization did in 2004.

While many Rider students were absent from the voting booths, the Democrats shone in the national spotlight. As a result of important victories in senatorial and congressional races, Democrats took control both of the House of Representatives and Senate.

“I knew this election could pretty much change the power in the government and it did,” said junior Caroline Trueman. “Now the Democrats have control.”

But many of the issues highlighted by the campaigns targeted older voters, possibly a reason for absence of younger voters at the Lawrence Senior Center on Tuesday. Journalism students doing a class project at the polls around 7 p.m. encountered only two people who appeared under the age of 30. A student who voted in the afternoon was slowed by “a cute couple, both of them using walkers.”

According to Dr. David Rebovich, professor of political science and an analyst frequently quoted in the media, students voiced similar concerns to him about topics that politicians stress.

“It seems there is a disconnection between what candidates are saying and what young people are interested in and want to hear,” said Rebovich. “In recent years, students have said to me in the classroom and after events on campus that too often candidates talk about issues affecting old people like Medicare or Social Security. Rarely do they discuss college tuition, job-creation or helping the needy.”

Voter turnout among students in the introductory political science courses was low, according to Rebovich.

“I have a lot of freshmen, so I have a large number of 18-year-olds and it seems as if most of them did not vote,” he said.

However, in the more advanced political science courses, which contain a significant number of upperclassmen, student turnout at the polls was “nearly 100 percent,” according to Dr. Jonathan Mendilow, chairman of the Political Science Department.

“I can tell that from when I asked students,” said Mendilow. “I was highly impressed in the turnout of the voters.”

The importance of this midterm election did in fact resonate on the national level, voter turnout reached an estimated 83 million Americans, or 40.3 percent, according to Reuters.
The factors that contributed to the voter turnout, according to Mendilow, were the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and recent allegations of corruption among Republican congressmen.

However, there were still many students who seemed discouraged from voting from a lack of knowledge about the candidates.

“We, ‘our generation,’ was not the ‘targeted audience’ and we were not told enough about the candidates running,” said a survey participant.

Then there were others who were totally left in the dark.

“I didn’t vote,” said a survey participant. “Because I had no idea who the candidates were and where they stood on issues.”

— Additional reporting by Jeff Frankel and Paul Szaniawski