Student voter turnout in Tuesday's Wisconsin state primary election increased in comparison with past primaries, according to Phil Ejercito, a UW-Madison senior and volunteer with the Vote 2002 Coalition.
\The Lakeshore dorms had only seven votes in the last primary,"" Ejercito said. ""This time there were 289, so we're pleased with that kind of increase.""
Such an increase can be attributed in part to the relocation of the polling site at the Reserve Officers Training Corps. building to the dorms. The United States Students Association worked with UW-Madison students to encourage voting by ensuring that polling sites were convenient for all students, according to the Vote 2002 Coalition.
The numbers at the City Clerk's Office agree with Ejercito. The percentage of voters increased drastically at Memorial Union polls, for example, from those of two years ago in the September 2000 primaries, according to Deputy City Clerk Sharon Christensen.
This is significant progress, especially when noting past student voting history for the primaries, Christensen said.
""Students normally don't vote in the primaries. Especially in the spring, [the numbers] would be very, very low, less than 5 percent,"" Christensen said.
Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison professor of political science, notes the poignant part students can have.
""Students are a block of voters. They can be mobilized. They surround the campus area so they can be focused on. [However,] student turnout is almost always a lot lower than general population turnout,"" Franklin said.
Despite a traditionally low student turnout, student involvement many times proves vital in an election, Franklin said. For example, four years ago students helped play a significant role in the election of Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison. The students portion of the vote boosted Baldwin to the top in an close election.
Franklin said the fact that many students are transients and not rooted members of Wisconsin makes gaining their votes difficult for candidates.
Ejercito recognized this, yet felt it did not present an impediment to the Coalition's progress.
The Coalition attempted to get the word out to as many people as possible in the roughly 10 days they had between the start of school and the election.
""We definitely turned out students that otherwise wouldn't have voted,"" he said.
Now the Coalition members look forward to promoting the general election Nov. 5, Ejercito said.
Franklin said he finds such activism promising.
""I think other students affect students more than TV commercials do. Personal contact matters,"" Franklin said.
