Registered voter numbers in University precincts highest in decades

Brian Quinn hasn’t found a voter registration card in his mailbox yet, but he knows it’s on its way.

He’s looking forward to putting it to good use.

“People who have an interest will vote,” said Quinn, a freshman in Mass Communications, of the upcoming presidential election, a contest in which he most definitely is not in the undecided column. “I think this current president is a lie. People don’t want to endure another four years of this.”

Quinn, a resident of Kellogg Hall, registered about a month ago when political activists were pouring through the SIUC residence halls trying to sign up as many voters as they could.

As it turns out, they got quite a few.

In an election that finds voters more divided than at any other time in recent history, preliminary numbers show a dramatic rise in the number of voters registered to head to the polls this year.

Sarah Bauer, president of the SIUC College Democrats, said this is more than a coincidence.

“It’s such a crucial election,” said Bauer, who added that the College Democrats worked feverishly to get as many students registered as possible. “Turnout will be great this year.”

Using voter registration numbers provided by the Jackson County Clerk’s office and population numbers provided by University Housing, the DAILY EGYPTIAN found that 57 percent of students in the residence halls, which make up the only purely student precincts in Carbondale, are registered to vote in the upcoming election. While this figure represents just more than half of the population, it is a stark contrast to numbers that have come out of recent elections.

Although Jackson County Clerk Larry Reinhardt said recent voter purges have made it impossible “to compare apples and oranges” when it comes to pitting this number against those of past years, other statistics have helped shed light on the nature of the change. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that in the 2000 presidential election, about 584,000 eligible Illinois voters between the ages of 18 and 24 – a little less than 49 percent of the demographic – registered to vote.

So while the 57 percent in University Housing may be taken as a positive sign, it isn’t yet the signifier of a trend. Out of those 584,000, one out of four did not show up to the polls, and when it came time for the congressional election in 2002, registration among the age group slipped to just more than 37 percent, and fewer than half of those registered showed up to vote.

Mike Lawrence, director of the Public Policy Institute, said this is an expected trend. While some eligible voters feel pressured to register because they are put on the spot to do so, Lawrence said many of them stay away from the polls because, in the end, registering is easier than voting. When it comes to years when the presidency is not at stake, people are just not that interested, and Lawrence said he would like to see this fact change with the rising number of voters.

“I hope they will continue to vote,”Lawrence said. “The major issues are not going to disappear in the next two years.”

For now, though, the real answers regarding how many will punch their ballots won’t come for another two weeks. Reinhardt, noting that more than a quarter of Jackson County’s 37,806 registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 25, said the age group has the ability to be a major political force in the county.

However, even among the residents of University Housing, inconsistencies remain. While more than seven out of 10 residents of Brush Towers are registered to vote, the buildings of University Park, located just next door, can claim only a 44 percent registration rate.

Regardless, John Teresi, president of the SIUC College Republicans, said there is real hope when it comes to seeing more young voters this year.

“This year will be one of the biggest turnouts,” Teresi said. “Students are definitely getting more interested. It’s our future that’s at stake.”