Low Student Voter Turnout in College Park City Council Elections

On November 6, 2007, the elections for the College Park City Council were held. Although the statistics of the student voter turnout will not be known for certain until later on, the turnout was still low. SGA hoped to bring 200 students out to the election polls and managed to register 1,064 students. However, the Diamondback article "Student Turnout Far Short of SGA Goal" states that only 25 to 30 students came to get a ride to the polling site. Because some students used a different mode of transportation, the turnout may be a bit higher.

As a team researching college students' voter turnout, we are interested in why students did not vote at the election. This low turnout may be partly due to a lack of media coverage and a lack of knowledge about the election. I saw almost nothing regarding the election. I did happen to notice a flyer in my apartment about the candidates and the election, but the flyer was not very noticeable among all the other papers pinned on the wall. Perhaps, the election could be publicized more on campus, so that the students would be more aware of the election and the issues.

Also, there was "some discontent expressed over the uncontested elections." Perhaps if the races were more highly anticipated, then more students would have voted. As a group, we also discussed that the inconvenience of voting may have hindered students. If the voting polls were on campus, would this change the voter turnout? Also, the topic of apathy was discussed. Some students may think that they see no immediate changes from the elections, and if the results of the election did not affect them in the immediate present, then why bother voting when they plan on leaving College Park in a few years after they graduate?

Whatever the reason for the low student voter turnout, we hope to implement a tactic that can increase the voting on campus.

- Sarah