May 25 2010
Young Voters
I’m preparing to go back to Springfield today to testify against yet another attempt to force Champaign County to open an early voting site on campus. In preparing testimony, I found an interesting article, College students in the 2004 Election. It was prepared by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. The key element for the purposes of the campus voting bill is here.
Most students were registered to vote, and turnout was high. Nearly 90% (88%) of the students said they were registered to vote. Of these, nearly 90% (88%) said they voted. This means that overall, some 77% of the students said they voted. Similar percentages of freshmen through seniors voted.
This rate of turnout is very high when compared to non-college students. According to CIRCLE’s analysis of national exit poll data and vote tallies, approximately 42% of all 18-24s voted. Thus, in 2004 as in other recent years, college students were nearly twice as likely to vote as young people who do not attend college.
The fact that college students vote at higher numbers than their non college counterparts is reflected in Champaign County as well. Roughly speaking, 76% of the young voters in the campus area voted last time. Just 61% outside of the campus area did.
Mark — In light of the County Board’s partisan vote to not ask the governor to veto the bill:
I admittedly do not know of all the colleges that this stupid bill affects, but aren’t most of the major universities in Illinois in the same town as the county seat?
Except in very unique situations, this county does not provide special consideration nor special privileges when voting. If people can take the time to travel over 20 miles to vote early at the Brookens Center, can’t the students here take the time to hop on the Green route? Oh, that’s right! It only goes right in front of the Brookens Center every 15 minutes; excuse me for causing them any inconvenience. [NOTE: Any hint of sarcasm is totally intentional].
I’m sure even if the county paid the $2.00 round-trip bus fare for each student who desired to vote early, it would still be less than the cost of setting up an early voting site on campus.