Students register at record levels

By Tarciano Figueiredo
November 2, 2004

Voter registration numbers for DeKalb County – especially in student-dominated areas – are up from previous years.

The NIU community has at least seven precincts for registration, including areas for the residence halls, Greek Row and the apartments off of Lincoln Highway, DeKalb County Clerk Sharon Holmes said. DeKalb Precinct 9, which includes Grant Towers, saw an increase from 258 to 711 people registered to vote and DeKalb Precinct 14 saw an increase from 807 registered voters to 1,119.

The total registration number for DeKalb County is 55,380, Holmes said. The total number of registered voters in 2000 was 49,267, she said.

“The number of people registered has gone up tremendously since the primaries,” Holmes said.

Some attribute this jump in registration numbers to an increase in voter intensity.

“A lot of people don’t know about the outcome of the election, so they feel their vote will make a difference,” said David Rusin, director of undergraduate studies in the department of mathematical sciences. “As we saw in Florida four years ago, a very small number can make a difference.”

In the 2000 election, there were more than 26 million eligible voters age 18 to 24 and about one-third of them showed up to vote, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

There has been a boost in younger voter rates since the 1992 election and they helped Bill Clinton win the 1996 election, said Barbara Burrell, associate director of NIU’s public opinion laboratory.

There are several reasons why younger voters decide not to vote, she said.

One of the main causes could be because young people are not connected to communities, Burrell said.

Another reason is laziness. Christopher Tanzillo, a senior mechanical engineering major, said young voters are lazy and decide not to vote.

However, when younger voters do decide to vote, they do make an impact.

Students at the University of Wisconsin in 1998 were very supportive of Tammy Baldwin in her first race for Congress, Burrell said – and the turnout was much higher than expected and caused some voting stations in Madison to run out of ballots.

In that case, the overwhelming margins in the student precincts certainly made a difference, Burrell said. She said students just sat there and waited for their ballots.

Young voters could also have an impact on this year’s election because of their political views. Young people tend to be more liberal than the rest of the population, Burrell said.

In recent college polls, it was found that students prefer Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry over President George W. Bush. A Harvard University Institute of Politics poll found that 52 percent of college students would vote for Kerry, compared to 39 percent for Bush. In a Newsweek poll, 52 percent of voters were for Kerry, while 42 percent were for Bush.

However, students are not consistently liberal, so they may split their vote, Burrell said. Young women turn out at higher levels than young men and women are more liberal, she said.

To increase the number of young voters at NIU, student organizations such as the College Democrats and the College Republicans have tried to increase voter awareness by registering voters and promoting debates.

More students may have taken the initiative to become registered due to greater interest in issues that speak directly to them, said Andrew Nelms, chairman of the NIU College Republicans.

“There are a lot of issues that make us motivated to vote, such as the military involvement in Iraq, the possibility of a draft and the way education is funded at the state level,” Nelms said.

DeKalb County:

Registered voters:

2004-55,380

2000-49,267

1996-44,825

1992-40,618

Actual votes cast, percentage of registered:

2000-33,260: 67.5 percent 1996-29,259: 65.3 percent 1992-34,863: 85.8 percent

National:

People age 18 to 24 registered:

2000-12,127,248

1996-12,029,200