Tuesday’s election will decide who fills two open seats on East Lansing’s City Council. Residents and students will have four candidates to choose from - Planning Commission Chairman Kevin Beard, Planning Commissioner Liz Harrow, Downtown District Authority Chairman Vic Loomis and two-term incumbent Councilmember Bill Sharp.
But whoever is chosen, the important thing is that students get out and choose someone.
Student voter apathy is one of the biggest problems on campus. There are many reasons students choose not to vote, ranging from not having enough information on the candidates or issues to simply not being interested.
There have been many initiatives to get students to vote, from registration drives to fliers around campus. The latest effort is a partnership between the city and the university with an accompanying Web site, youvote.msu.edu.
These efforts are helpful - but only if they’re given proper promotion and awareness. Organizations such as ASMSU and other student political groups should work toward getting students out to vote and informing voters of the candidates and issues. Unfortunately, even with proper information, some students still leave the election process alone.
But students have too much at stake to ignore these elections.
Students often complain about issues in East Lansing. But despite the griping, they do very little about it.
It would only take a few thousand students to get behind something - a candidate, a cause or anything - for it to succeed. At this level of government, it is much easier to see the difference one person’s vote makes.
Yet only 9.33 percent of East Lansing’s registered voters showed up at the polls for the August primary. A relatively small group of voters determined the outcome of that election, costing two recent MSU graduates a slot in the November election for city council.
The East Lansing City Council is the voice that determines the way the city where we live at least nine months out of the year grows and takes shape.
The four candidates in Tuesday’s election will be determining whether there will be better places to live and shop for students. They will be making decisions on parking, housing, trash and police matters - issues that affect us all as residents of East Lansing, no matter how often we’re here.
It is unfortunate the election and the government that affects people the most gets so little attention. The lack of well-known names, and the drought of information among voters keeps the polls from being as busy as they should be.
All residents - especially students - need to take charge of the events that shape their city. Vote in Tuesday’s election.
