Voter apathy results in low turnout at polls

Nov 5 2009 - 1:04am | Heidi Morrison

Voter attendance on Election Day was low, said Joyce Cowan, Hays County elections administrator.

“A lot of people didn’t turn out,” she said.

Election day was Tuesday, and 8.11 percent of registered voters participated at the polls.

Cowan said one of the main reasons she believes the turnout was small is because people do not educate themselves about the candidates or propositions.

“If you don’t feel you have the information to vote wisely, then of course you don’t turn out,” she said. “It’s hard to get informed of whether to vote for or against an issue without checking into it.”

Cowan said San Marcos brought in 2,049 votes. She said that is not much with the nearly 29,000 San Marcos residents and more than 30,000 Texas state students.

“By the knowledge I have right now, I don’t think we had a lot of our younger age group turn out,” she said.

Mandy Domaschk, president of College Democrats, said Texas State officials were not as involved as they should have been.

“We didn’t have anything on our homepage about voting,” she said. “Nothing.”

College Democrats were in The Quad during early voting with signs encouraging students to vote at LBJ.

“We didn’t do a big registration drive like we should have, but nobody else did,” said Domaschk, political science senior. “College Republicans didn’t try.”

However, Kristopher Infante, College Republicans chairman, disagrees.

“On the first early voting day we were cooking in The Quad,” he said. “We gave out push cards and told everybody who came where the voting place was. We directed people toward LBJ where the early-voting site was.”

He said College Republicans’ vice chairman, Roseanne Rodriguez, sent e-mails to everyone on their list reminding them to vote and explaining the propositions.

Cowan said students are not familiar with the candidates.

Candidates were by the LBJ Student Center, introducing themselves and encouraging registered students to vote during early voting.

However, the students do not know them, she said.

Infante, political science sophomore, said that is one reason College Republicans invited candidates to speak.

“We brought City Council candidates to our meetings to inform students,” Infante said. “(They) informed students on the propositions that affected veterans and students as well.”

He said College Republicans discussed Prop 4, more than others because it “impacts students the most.”

“I was hoping more students would come out because these issues matter to them so much,” Domaschk said.

She said students who do not vote have no right to complain.

“Don’t complain when you’re walking down the street and see sidewalks aren’t finished or they’re broken or there’s no bike paths,” she said. “All these are decided by City Council members.”

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