SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Due to an editing error, an article in Monday?s Daily misstated information about polling figures. There are 3,000 Northwestern students registered to vote at on-campus polling places. A total of 5,000 students are registered to vote at polling places on and near the Evanston Campus.The Daily regrets the error and it has been corrected in the following story.
A surge in the number of Northwestern students registered to vote in the Nov. 2 election has prompted Cook County to place extra staff and polling equipment at NU polling places on Election Day.
About 3,000 voters are registered at two on-campus polling places and at one polling place where mostly students will vote, according to Cook County figures. About 2,000 were registered to vote in these precinct areas in the 2000 presidential election.
“I think across the board there seems to be a significant increase in the interest of young people (in this election),” said Cook County Clerk David Orr. “I also think there’s been some pretty successful registration efforts going on at Northwestern.”
When polling places near NU’s Evanston Campus are included — where many students live and vote alongside city residents — that figure rises to more than 5,000. Neither figure includes NU’s hundreds of absentee voters.
To accommodate the larger-than-normal turnout expected Nov. 2, Cook County will double the number of voting booths at Parkes Hall, Lake Street Church and Patten Gym. Those polling places also will be assigned more poll workers to oversee voting on Election Day.
Orr said he also hopes the upgrades will prevent problems like those encountered at Parkes Hall in 2000. A jump in last-minute registrations and a higher-than-expected turnout early in the morning led to long lines, Orr said.
“You don’t expect students to be voting so early,” Orr said.
Analysis of individual precinct data reveals that the number of students registered to vote increased by between 500 and 700 on North Campus compared to 2000, from Lincoln Street to Library Place.
On South Campus, from Library Place to Clark Street, registered voters increased by about 400 compared to 2000 statistics. But the estimated increase may include Evanston residents who live in this precinct between Foster Street and Church Street.
Cook County officials attributed the increase in NU voters partly to a frenzy of political interest nationwide among young people this year. But more influential, they said, was the furious drive by Associated Student Government and Student Affairs officials to bring NU students to the polls.
In the few weeks between the start of school and Illinois’ Oct. 5 registration deadline, Student Affairs and ASG scattered volunteers across campus to register students. Volunteers set up tables at dining halls, the Technological Institute and Norris University Center every day leading up to the deadline, volunteers said.
NU is obligated by law to “make good faith effort” to register students to vote, according to the 1998 re-authorization of the Higher Education Act. This year’s registration numbers indicate these efforts are paying off, said William Banis, vice president for student affairs.
“We have an obligation — as all colleges and universities do — to get students to register and to go and participate in the electoral process,” Banis said. “We take that seriously. And I think the numbers speak for themselves.”
Now that the registration deadline has passed, student volunteers have redirected their efforts toward ensuring registered students actually vote at the polls Nov. 2, said ASG External Relations Vice Chairwoman Veronica Tong, who helped organize the registration drive.
College-age Americans typically are among the least likely to vote. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only one-third of the 24 million eligible voters aged 18 to 24 cast ballots in 2000.
But experts at NU said nationally, young people are paying more attention to politics than in years past.
Journalism Associate Prof. Jack Doppelt, who co-authored the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows,” said there is a pervasive “media buzz” going on led by such icons as filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Jon Stewart, and pop music and movie stars.
Young voters this year will be driven to the polls by a “core anger” with the political process, Doppelt said. This anger takes on three parts.
“One, George Bush is a prop and the people around him are dangerous,” Doppelt said. “Two, the Democrats and Kerry are lifeless and spineless and basically beside the point. And three, the rest of politics — mainly the media and the pollsters — are not talking their language at all.”
Kenneth Janda, political science professor emeritus, said the down-to-the-wire results of the 2000 election gave meaning to the phrase “every vote counts.” It’s a phrase that most young voters laugh off, but maybe this year they will take it seriously, Janda said.
“After the 2000 election,” Janda said, “people said, ‘By golly that’s true.'”
Reach Dan Strumpf at [email protected].
Quick facts:
3,000 voters registered for Nov. 2 election in campus residences precincts including Ward 1, Precinct 6; Ward 7, Precinct 9 and 10.
Between 500 and 700 new registrations on North Campus and 400 new registrations on South Campus since 2000.
