Students turn out in low numbers

Less than 10 percent of registered voters living on  Truman's campus cast their vote in the 2010 Midterm elections.

One hundred and fifty-five students voted in Precinct 7, down from 384 votes in 2006 and 1,192 votes in the 2008 presidential election, according to the summary report by the Adair County Clerk's office. Precinct 7 is made up of on-campus housing. Students who live off-campus are located in various other precincts, depending on the area of Kirksville in which they live.

Precinct 7 voters made up only two percent of the total 7,719 votes cast in Adair County on Tuesday. Precinct 7 results, which predominately supported Democrat candidates, differed from the overall voting results  of Adair County in every contested race but one. The race for Associate Circuit Judge elected incumbent Kristie J. Swaim, the only Democrat to win a contested race in Adair County, with 62.22 percent in precinct 7 and 51.85 in Adair County at-large. Precinct 7 also voted opposite the final results of Adair County on both Propositions A and B.

Senior Trish Speers cast her vote Tuesday in the SUB in a party-line fashion. She said students might not think their midterm election vote matters, and worried what would happen if everyone didn't consider their own vote important.

"You don't really know if your vote makes a difference or not, but maybe that's not really the point of one person voting," Speers said. "It's more of a collective effort. If nobody does, then nobody can make a difference."

Speers said the low turnout was disappointing. Apathy or uncertainty about the process might have led to low student participation.

She said perhaps it was more of an informational issue rather than one of laziness.

"Encourage some kind of forum, but talk about what the issues are," Speers said. "Not even whether we're for or against them, but what are, so people know what they've voting for."

Senior Janée Johnson, president of College Democrats, said her organization worked for weeks in advance to register voters and send them to the polls Tuesday. Johnson described student interest as "Somewhat apathetic."

"It's due to some sort of a disenchantment or disengagement with students for this year's election," Johnson said. "I didn't think it was going to be like 2008, where everybody was really energized about President Obama and all the stuff that he had promised to do, but I honestly didn't expect for turnout to be this low."

However, she said College Democrats had registered more than 100 people to vote.

"I don't see why someone wouldn't want to fill out and exercise that right they have to vote," Johnson said.

She said one problem is that many students, especially those voting in Precinct 7, don't identify Kirksville as their home, even though most students spend the majority of the year here.

"You're here way more than you are at home," Johnson said. "And so the things that are getting voted on for Adair County and Kirksville are going to affect you way more than anything that you could vote on at your home."

Junior Vinciane Ngomsi, president of College Republicans, said the lack of student interest was "upsetting."

Ngomsi said student turnout might have been low because of the lack of elections for prominent positions, such as governor or president. Missouri did not receive a lot of coverage on the national scene this election cycle.

Those who did want to vote, she said, made sure they voted. But some students might have decided to abstain from voting in Adair County because they will be graduating or leaving, and the decisions made by local politicians won't affect them.

College Republicans also worked tables sponsoring student registration. Ngomsi said it  registered 10 voters. The biggest goal was to get students to vote - regardless of political party. She said College Republicans experienced complaints from students of all political perspectives but that many people don't actually do anything about their complaints - they don't vote.

The Democratic leaning in Precinct 7, Ngomsi said, shows a shortage of loud, conservative voices on campus - a political position she said requires courage.

"I feel like every day when I step on campus, I'm setting myself up for critics or whatever it is, maybe because I'm wearing a College Republicans shirt," Ngomsi said.