Defying perceptions of apathy to local politics, student voters played a significant role in Tuesday’s aldermanic elections.

Cheryl Wollin defeated Judy Fiske 217-15 in the First Ward’s student-dominated sixth precinct. She was elected alderman of the First Ward by 89 votes.

Wollin’s victory is partly because Students for Wollin, a group of five volunteers who have been working since December for her campaign, said Patrick Keenan-Devlin, a member of the group.

Students for Wollin’s campaign on South Campus intensified in the days leading up to the election.

Volunteers posted flyers on doors, on sidewalks and even in dorm bathrooms, said Lily Trienens, a volunteer for Wollin’s campaign.

About 25 percent of registered student voters in the sixth precinct voted, Trienens said.

“It’s pretty typical,” Trienens said. “It’s hard to get much more than that and I feel we did as much as we could to get students to the polls.”

Some students thought Fiske would have a negative attitude toward Northwestern if elected alderman.

“I didn’t vote for Fiske because of the things she did last year — splitting up Northwestern students into different wards,” said Rachelle Faroul, a Communication sophomore.

Last year, Evanston City Council redistricted the city, splitting students into multiple wards in the process.

Fiske could not vote on the proposal because she was not on the City Council, but she supported the plan.

Weinberg sophomore Robert Teng said Wollin’s student volunteers came to his dorm to give out campaign flyers. When he learned about Wollin’s platform, Teng decided to vote for her.

“One of the reasons she gave is a very student-oriented downtown and part of that is affordable housing,” Teng said. “Prices are going up downtown and we don’t want Evanston to alienate people who’ve always been here.”

Wollin will replace Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) when she takes over as First Ward alderman in May. Some students said they voted for Wollin because they thought she would fix strained town-gown relations.

“After having Newman in office so long, I know we need a pro-Northwestern First Ward alderman,” said Weinberg sophomore Whitney Gretz.

Judy Fiske’s campaign had no active student involvement and none of Fiske’s poll-watchers were students, said Mimi Roeder, Fiske’s campaign administrator. That absence may have tipped the student vote.

“I didn’t really see Fiske around so much,” said Weinberg freshman Jennifer Yu, who voted for Wollin.

Roeder said Fiske wasn’t given equal opportunity to make her platform known to students.

“While I respect the right of students to place their votes, they would have needed to know both sides of the coin and I’m not sure that information made it to them,” Roeder said.

Roeder said that during the elections Tuesday, students stood outside Parkes Hall, the sixth precinct’s voting location. She said students told voters that “Ms. Wollin is the students’ choice,” and that “ASG endorsed Ms. Wollin.”

ASG did not make an endorsement in the aldermanic elections. Most of Wollin’s campaign volunteers are also ASG senators.

Bill Taylor, Wollin’s campaign manager, said that Wollin did not contact ASG and that ASG members did not approach the campaign in the role of student government leaders.

“They approached us as individual students,” Taylor said.

The Daily’s Tina Peng contributed to this report.

Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].