City officials, former candidates and student volunteers are still trying to figure out why so few Northwestern students voted in last Tuesday’s municipal election.
At the three on-campus voting locations, turnout dipped 65 percent compared to the last city election in 2005, according to unofficial numbers released by the Cook County Election Department. In one student-heavy precinct, turnout fell a staggering 97 percent.
“Students didn’t come out at all,” said Evanston City Clerk Rodney Greene. “I have no idea why, unless they just weren’t interested in the local race. They came out in mass numbers back on Nov. 4, but I guess this one didn’t interest them enough.”
Numbers from the 2001 election were not comparable since voting locations changed in 2003.
This year’s low turnout may have determined the winner of the Evanston City Council spot in the First Ward. That race was a rematch of 2005, when Cheryl Wollin rode massive student support to narrowly beat Judy Fiske, prompting Fiske to sue the university over an alleged “vote-buying scheme.”
Four years ago, Wollin won 219-15 in the ward’s sixth precinct, located at Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road, and won the overall election by 80 votes. On Tuesday, just 34 people voted in the sixth precinct, and Fiske unseated the incumbent by about 250 votes.
Reached on Saturday, Wollin declined to speculate on the reason for the low student turnout.
“I don’t know,” she said. “If you come up with an answer, let me know. Because I don’t know.”
Others pointed to a variety of reasons for the drop.
Mayor-elect Elizabeth Tisdahl said President Barack Obama’s aggressive bid for young voters probably cost the local election student voter registrations.
“Everyone was encouraging students to vote in their home states because Illinois was going to go for Obama regardless,” she said. “They did the right thing and voted for him in their home states.”
Patrick Keenan-Devlin, a Wollin volunteer and former NU Associated Student Government president, dismissed the “Obama effect,” calling it an “excuse.” Keenan-Devlin, who became ASG president one week after the 2005 Evanston election, said many students were involved in John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid.
Instead, he said the primary reason was students’ apprehension of voting after Fiske’s 2005 lawsuit.
“I think too many students were fearful of being sued again,” Keenan-Devlin said. “That’s very disheartening for me to say because I don’t think anything should have precluded them from becoming involved.”
NU economics Prof. Mark Witte agreed, calling it “classic voter suppression.”
He added that in 2005, students were especially motivated to vote because of a failed attempt shortly beforehand to dilute the student vote. That attempt came in the form of re-making the ward boundaries to divide students into many districts and therefore lessen students’ electoral impact. The boundaries changed in 2003 but divided campus into just two wards, which was considered a victory for students.
“Four years ago, the recollection of the redistricting thing was very fresh in people’s minds,” Witte said. “It was a very personal thing.”
About 50 NU students came to an October 2003 City Council meeting about the redistricting. Eighteen months later, almost 600 people voted in city elections in the three on-campus precincts. This year, just 214 people cast ballots at those locations.
The number of registered voters in the First Ward fell by 203, according to numbers provided by the clerk’s office. Registration in the student-heavy Fifth and Seventh wards fell by 193 and 91, respectively.
Mike Markese, who directed voter registration for NU PicKs, a student group focused on getting students to vote in the election, said the numbers were “very disappointing to see.”
He called the voter registration effort “extensive” but said the group could have done more.
“People just aren’t that excited about where to put a new stop sign or a crosswalk,” the SESP sophomore said. “If I could do it all over again, I would focus more on getting students excited about voting.”
Weinberg junior Lillian Cheng, the head of NU PicKs, said more students would have been interested if a student had run for a position.
The last time a student ran was in 1997, when then-Weinberg sophomore Raj Udeshi lost 653-100 in a write-in campaign against incumbent Ald. Art Newman (1st).
This year, Tuesday’s winners pledged to represent students even though few of them voted.
Fiske, who has historically had a rocky relationship with NU, said “students are going to be very pleased with my representation.”
Jane Grover, Seventh Ward alderman-elect, pledged to connect with the students in a meaningful way.
“I’m hoping the turnout is not a sign of a disconnect,” she said. “I’m certainly hoping to engage the students and be involved on campus.”
