Nationwide, college students tend not to vote, and NIU is no exception.

State Comptroller Roland Burris said, “The right to vote is one of the most precious rights we have in this nation, yet fewer and fewer people eligible to vote are actually casting ballots.”

In 1972, when the legal voting age dropped from 21 to 18, about 50 percent of that age group voted, a report from the United States Student Association stated.

Since that time, the percentage of young voters between the ages of 18 and 24 has fallen to 39 percent. Based on past performances, experts predicted that about 15 million people in the 18 to 24 age group will not vote in 1988.

Fred Azcarate, president of the USSA, said the average is different for those who are actually registered to vote. “Once registered, 80 percent of all 18 to 24-year-olds vote on election day.”

To address student concerns about voting and participating in the election, the USSA is holding a national student conference in Washington D.C on voter participation from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.

USSA member Circe Pajunen said the conference will focus on getting students more involved with the electorate system. She said low voter participation is linked to lack of knowledge on the presidential candidates’ platforms and the issues.

The conference will be broken up into three parts, the first being a general session with presidential candidates’ representatives speaking on issues, Pajunen said.

She said the more than 500 student leaders attending will divide into small groups to listen to a point-and-counter-point debate on the issues for the second part of the conference.

The third portion will consist of workshops so that the student leaders can learn how to apply what they have learned at their respective campuses, Pajunen said.

Laura Saunders, student government president at Borough of Manhattan Community College, said, “While studies show that young people are more likely to express interest in politics and optimism about the effects of their vote, political parties and candidates spend less time and resources on outreach to young voters than to any other age group of the electorate.”

Catherine Crane, director of the National Student Campaign for Voter Registration, said, “It’s a catch-22 situation. Politicians write off the student vote because they think students don’t care, and the students are less inclined to vote because politicians ignore them.”

Burris said that Oct. 11 generally is considered the final day to register to vote for the presidential election.

“Voting for America,” a study conducted by the Democratic National Committee, showed that 24 percent of the Illinois voting population is not registered to vote.

However, the DNC study stated, “Nearly 50 percent of our (Illinois) eligible voters do not vote for president. America is confronting a crisis in non-voting.

“The percentage of eligible voters who participate in local, state and national elections remains deplorably low,” the DNC study concluded.

This study and others like it concur that Hispanics are the least likely group to vote. During the last presidential election, 66 percent of the eligible Hispanics, 50 percent of the eligible blacks and 45 percent of the eligible whites did not vote, the DNC study showed.