Student voter turnout in East Lansing local elections is historically dismal, and there’s scant evidence to suggest Tuesday’s East Lansing City Council election will be any different.
City officials worry other circumstances, including recently changed precincts and the fact that many of last year’s registered on-campus voters moved to new residencies, might only hurt turnout rates.
Thousands of notices mailed to student residences about the precinct boundaries changing were returned to the city unopened, as former residents likely moved off-campus, said Marie Wicks, East Lansing’s city clerk.
Now, students living off-campus have to vote at an off-campus polling location, Wicks said.
Since many people changed residencies since the last election, voters might not know where they’re supposed to cast their ballot.
Those who just moved still can vote on-campus one last time, however, so it’s unlikely to pose much of a hindrance, other than perhaps some minor confusion and frustration.
“We really want to make sure students get out and vote in every election,” Wicks said. “I don’t care where they vote as long as they vote, period.”
But history isn’t quite on the city’s side.
The most recent statistics show that in 2011, 122 people voted in on-campus precincts out of 8,363 registered voters from those same areas. Of course, this doesn’t include students who live off-campus; the raw turnout numbers for East Lansing polling areas don’t differentiate between student and non-student.
Years prior tell a similar tale.
Several campus groups, including ASMSU, College Republicans and College Democrats, held a voter registration drive on Oct. 2.
Between 75 and 100 people attended, said Matt Franks, director of public relations at ASMSU.
Franks said the groups recently hosted a similar event in Case Hall.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
Still, students typically aren’t interested in city council elections, said Mark Grebner, board chair of the Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting Inc. and former county commissioner, because the elections are, well, uninteresting.
“It’s about the dullest campaign in the last 50 years,” Grebner said. “What makes politics interesting is if there are two sides. You got the ‘A team’ and the ‘B team.’ You got the Tigers and the Indians. You got the Republicans and the Democrats.
You got the ‘in party’ and you got the other side, which is angry about the way things are being done.”
“The point is, we don’t have two sides. What we have is no sides. It’s more like a cocktail party and not a very interesting one,” Grebner said.
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