Northwestern students rocked the vote in the November presidential election, with student groups registering more than 1,000 new voters in Fall Quarter alone.
Although the national election fever has cooled and the country’s new president has been inaugurated, a new race is just beginning — one that may affect students’ daily lives more directly.
For Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) and his challenger, Kellogg Prof. Allan Drebin, harnessing the power of student participation may determine the outcome of the race, said political science Prof. Kenneth Janda.
“Students could be a very important force if they do indeed organize and participate (in the campaigns),” Janda said.
Although young people generally don’t participate in local politics, especially in their college towns, a faculty member’s campaign probably will generate more interest among the student body, Janda said.
But Janda said trying to bring a large number of students to the polls on election day will be a “considerable task.” A more reasonable objective, he said, would be for the candidates to try to recruit a core group of 50 to 100 students to actively work on the campaign.
“Those students could certainly supply an important element, such as knocking on doors, that would be important in an election like this,” Janda said.
More than 11,400 people currently are registered to vote in the First Ward, City Clerk Mary Morris said. The ward’s sixth precinct, which includes South Campus and much of downtown Evanston, has more than 1,400 registered voters, many of whom are students.
While hundreds of students flooded the sixth precinct polls in Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., for this year’s presidential election, local elections historically have seen relatively low voter turnouts.
In 1997, Newman defeated then-Weinberg sophomore Raj Udeshi 653 to 100. Udeshi, who ran a write-in campaign, received 76 of his votes from the sixth precinct. That year, only 94 people voted in the sixth precinct.
City officials attributed the low student turnout to the fact that the election fell on the first day of Spring Quarter classes.
About 350 people voted in the sixth precinct in the 1993 municipal elections.
Votes cast that year for Lorraine Morton in student precincts helped her narrowly defeat Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) to become Evanston’s mayor, supporters of both candidates said.
Newman received 963 votes in the 1993 election to defeat then-Weinberg senior Tom Lupfer’s 352 votes and Evanston resident Bob Costello’s 279 votes.
Adam Humann, Weinberg senior and Associated Student Government president, and Molly Allen, Speech senior and chairwoman of A&O Productions, are planning to work on Drebin’s campaign. Drebin said about 20 other students have e-mailed him, also hoping to participate.
ASG will be conducting another voter registration drive in the next few months to encourage students who absentee voted in their home states to vote this spring in Evanston.
Humann said it’s critical that students not only register to vote but also cast their ballots.
University President Henry Bienen said he hopes for a good turnout because so much rests on the election’s outcome. By voting, students can help shape the future of the relationship between NU and the city, he said.
“If students make their voices heard, then they will have much more to say about the evolution of city politics and the interaction that is congenial to their interests,” Bienen said.
The Daily’s Sasha Talcott contributed to this report.
