Young
voters remain disengaged despite recall
election hype
By
Ana Milvea & My-Thuan Tran
Daily Californian
BERKELEY
(U-Wire) -- Although a strong showing from
young voters in the polls Tuesday could
sway the state's historical recall election,
few in the slew of gubernatorial candidates
have riled up this voting block, which is
notorious for passing up elections.
Even
as the entire nation works itself into a
frenzy over the recall, many University
of California at Berkeley students say they
are still undecided about the election,
just one day before the polls open.
"I
was thinking I should probably look into
who I should vote for," said UC Berkeley
sophomore Christine Cusick.
Making
up more than one-tenth of the adult population,
young voters have the potential to impact
the election's outcome, said Jack Glaser,
a UC Berkeley public policy professor.
But
voters 18 to 24 have the lowest turnout
of all age groups. Just higher than 36 percent
of eligible youth voted in the last presidential
election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And
with none of the 135 gubernatorial candidates
aggressively campaigning for the youth vote,
many under 25 feel ignored.
"I
don't think that young voters care about
illegal aliens getting their drivers licenses
or taxes," Glaser said, referring to
two hotly contested issues in the gubernatorial
debates.
Instead,
UC Berkeley students care more about accessible
higher education and student fees -- issues
that students say candidates have cautiously
dodged.
"There
are so many issues that it's hard to concentrate
on what is most important," said UC
Berkeley senior Brian Mascarenhas. "The
candidates have been talking a lot about
the economy. That affects me, but not a
whole lot."
Still,
the heavily publicized special statewide
election has drawn in a sizeable number
of registered voters despite a compressed
timeline.
The
Associated Students of the University of
California External Affairs office recruited
5,500 new voters this semester, leading
one of the biggest registration drives on
campus.
"For
a nonmajor election year, the number is
incredible," said David Smith, executive
director of Mobilizing America's Youth.
"It's amazing that the recall can draw
such energy from youth across the state."
To
draw student voters to the polls, both high-profile
politicians and some little-known candidates
-- including a coterie of those under 30
-- have made appearances on campus.
In
the last several weeks, California Secretary
of State Kevin Shelley, former Independent
candidate Arianna Huffington and civil rights
activist Jesse Jackson all have come to
campus to urge students to vote.
"I
think students are very interested in the
recall election because it is an unusual
variance in California politics," said
Marc Levin, assistant director of the Institute
of Governmental Studies. The institute has
sponsored several television viewings of
gubernatorial debates and forums.
But
these events have attracted only several
dozens of students out of UC Berkeley's
thousands.
"I
have not been able to keep up with all the
politics," said UC Berkeley sophomore
Dwight Kim. "I've been too busy with
school."
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