When Victoria Smurro voted for the first time in 2008, she knew the names and the platforms of the candidates on her Rhode Island absentee ballot. Smurro voted for the president and every political race in her home state.

But she did not apply for a ballot on time to vote in this year’s midterm elections because she did not know much about the candidates and viewed the midterms as less important than the presidential election, she said.

‘No one’s really pushing us to vote, so why would we?’ said Smurro, a senior public relations major.

In a year without a presidential race on the ballot, student political groups are pushing for more students to vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections than they did in the September primaries, which saw a very low student turnout. Though political issues this election season could impact students, such as potential cuts to Federal Pell Grants, political experts and students expect another low student turnout on Tuesday.

A total of 17 people voted on Sept. 14 at E.S. Bird Library, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on Sept. 15. This included professors and local residents whose polling station is the library.

Most college students historically do not vote because they are wrapped up in their college lives and do not know much about the elections, said Jeffrey Stonecash, a political science professor.

‘They don’t know a lot about political history. They don’t know about the candidates,’ he said.

But there are issues in the midterm elections that will affect college students, he said. If Republicans gain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, Stonecash said they may try to cut funding for Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for school.

U.S. House Republicans have pledged to cut $100 billion of next year’s federal budget, which means Congress could slash up to $5 billion from the Federal Pell Grant Program, according to an article on Bloomberg.com published on Oct. 27.

Even with the Pell Grant issue, Stonecash said he expects student voter turnout to be low for the midterms following the 17-person turnout at Bird.

‘I’m amazed it was that high,’ he said.

There is always more interest in a presidential election than in the midterm elections, he said. In 2008 specifically, there was a high interest in elections because there was a lot of frustration with the Iraq War and former President George W. Bush’s administration, he said.

Young people usually do not establish themselves in the community and participate in politics until after college, Stonecash said.

The voter turnout at Bird usually increases by 30 percent during presidential elections, but the turnout there has been extremely low for elections during the past several years, said Edward Ryan, Onondaga County’s Democratic elections commissioner.

‘A lot of them don’t care about the local elections,’ he said.

Ryan expects 50 to 60 people to vote at Bird for the midterms, he said. Students living on Main Campus can vote at Bird, but those living on South Campus have to vote at Drumlins Country Club.

Some students have linked the low voting turnout to poor advertising of the elections on campus. Smurro said there are not as many advertisements and buzz about the elections this year as there were in 2008 for the presidential election.

Student political groups came to her Delta Delta Delta sorority chapter meetings in 2008 and encouraged many of the girls to register for absentee ballots, Smurro said. But that has not happened this year.

SU’s Office of Government and Community Relations provides voter registration forms and did a voter registration push in early October to get students registered, said Diana Napolitano, the office’s government relations associate.

This was the first year the university office could send an e-mail to students about how to register to vote because federal law previously did not specify it could send that information out electronically, she said.

SU College Democrats has registered at least 150 students to vote since the beginning of the school year in August, said Minda Conroe, the group’s president. The group is trying to make the midterms just as exciting as the 2008 presidential election, but presidential elections are usually a bit more fun than the midterms, Conroe said.

‘It’s something that we tackle every year, ‘How do we make this matter?” she said. ‘Especially now more than ever.’

Conroe sent her absentee ballot in last week for the midterms. But she understands most students live in a college bubble, she said.

‘It’s easy to kind of live in oblivion of what’s going on in the world of politics around you,’ she said.

Vasiliki Likitsakos, a senior public relations major, said she would consider going to the polls if she watched the news more. But as of now, she has never voted.

‘I didn’t know enough about politics to put my vote through,’ she said. ‘Just didn’t think it was fair.’

Students can make a difference at the polls, said Patrick Mocete, chairman of SU College Republicans. His group has 30 to 40 students in it now, which is a jump from when 15 to 20 students were members of the group in 2008, he said. The increase came from the group getting word out about its meetings and more Republican students trying to get their voices heard, he said.

Students do not have to be really politically involved to vote, Mocete said. They just need to understand the current and long-term effects of political issues.

‘We’re talking about our future here, and there are issues from the deficit to taxes to foreign policy,’ Mocete said. ‘It all is going to affect you at some point down the road.’

mcboren@syr.edu

 

Published on November 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm