With most MSU students out of town for spring break, turnout at polling centers across campus were low during Michigan's March 8 primary. Even so, various precincts on campus reported more than a handful of voters had come through.
Inside the Brody Complex, which is where precinct 1's polls are situated, only around four students had come to vote by 9:45 a.m. One of those students, chemistry junior Quentino Giangrande, displayed excitement after voting for his second time.
"I felt this was a lot more important than the state (elections) last time since it's a presidential primary," Giangrande said.
Elouise Mitchell, an international relations and comparative cultures and politics freshman, appeared chipper after leaving the polls.
"This was my first time voting and it was great since there were no lines," she said. "I'm excited to vote and participate politically."
As a member of the Students for Sanders campaign at MSU, Mitchell has been campaigning for Sanders "pretty hardcore" and made over 100 calls yesterday to encourage registered voters to come out and vote.
Other students weren't as happy. Hospitality business sophomore Lamont Davis was unable to vote on campus due to being registered in his hometown of Mt. Clemens. This would have been his first election he could vote in.
Though he said he wasn't discouraged from voting in the future, now that he's registered to vote in East Lansing, Davis did say he was disappointed by the lack of outreach by the Secretary of State and other bodies to ensure his eligibility to vote.
"I feel like my vote can't matter this election," Davis said. "If you're going to school, they should tell students where you're voting and how to check for that. A lot of my friends did absentee votes cause they were going to away for the break and I thought I wouldn't have to do that since I live here."
Absentee voting has become essential for many MSU students. According to the East Lansing City Clerk's office, 1,820 absentee voter ballots were distributed to absent voters and 1,607 were returned for processing by 8:00 a.m. Tuesday.
"I would have liked to see more about it," international relations junior Julia Christen said. As an election worker, Christensen aired similar grievances Davis had in relation to absentee and voting information overall.
"Just in general I think they need to do more outreach to students about basic information about how you vote because we don't have the most straightforward system," Christensen said."When I work an election we get probably half the people who turn out either didn't know they needed to register where they wanted to vote."
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