The Daily Campus: Student Voting Skyrockets

UConn Student Voter Turnout Rose 720 Percent

Youth voting is on the rise both nationally and here on campus.

Youth turnout for the 2006 midterm elections increased 3 percentage points since 2002, according to recent data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

According to CIRCLE, between 22 percent and 24 percent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29 went to the polls for the 2006 midterms, a clear increase from the 20 percent youth turnout in 2002.

The percentage of UConn students who voted in 2006 also increased. Student voter turnout rose by 720 percent since the 2002 midterm elections, according to Marshall Rivers, a 7th-semester political science and geography major and vice president of the College Democrats. According to Rivers, last fall UConn student organizations registered 1,600 new voters on campus, 924 of whom voted in the midterm elections. Four years earlier in 2002, 129 UConn students voted in the midterm elections.

Some believe UConn voters made all the difference in Democrat Joe Courtney's narrow victory over Republican incumbent Rob Simmons in the representative race for Connecticut's 2nd congressional district.

"If you look at the way the voting went so heavily in his favor here, there is really no doubt that UConn made all the difference, especially in such a narrow election," said Steve Boratko, a 7th-semester political science major who is membership coordinator of the College Democrats.

Courtney's office also acknowledged the impact UConn students had on his election.

"Clearly the effort that the students made really put us over the top because we won by only eighty-three votes," said Lon Seidman, Courtney's campaign manager in 2006.

Representative Courtney won by less than half of one percentage point, according to a Nov. 16 article in The Daily Campus. Support for the democratic candidate was overwhelming in Mansfield, where Courtney received 4,398 out of 6,275 total votes, according to Andrea Epling, Democratic Registrar of Voters in town hall.

Voting awareness programs at UConn began early in fall 2006, when UConn Votes - a coalition composed of numerous student organizations such as ConnPIRG, Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the College Democrats and the College Republicans - formed to register students to vote, according to a Sept. 25 article in The Daily Campus.

"The college democrats did a lot of dorm-storming, meaning going into dorms, especially freshmen dorms, and knocking on doors," Boratko said. "We kept track of who we registered and then on Election Day made sure we stopped by their rooms to remind them to vote."

Other efforts by UConn Votes included busing students to the polls and giving out frosty gift certificates and T-shirts to those who voted, Boratko said.

Also, technology has been used nationwide as a tool to register student voters and lure them to the polls. In an Oct. 19, 2006 posting on the Rock the Vote blog, the Internet appears to be a new and successful way to encourage youth voting. For this reason, Rock the Vote has become active on Facebook and MySpace in an effort to reach young voters.

By Kate King, UConn Daily Campus, 8/30/07