Students apathetic about local elections

The city elections are just around the corner and on Tuesday, Nov. 6, Pittsburgh voters will… The city elections are just around the corner and on Tuesday, Nov. 6, Pittsburgh voters will elect a mayor, marking a new term for either Mayor Luke Ravenstahl or one of his three opponents: Republican Mark DeSantis, Libertarian Tony Oliva and Socialist Ryan Scott.

And while these names might ring a bell for some native Pittsburghers, others have just heard them for the first time.

“Luke Ravenstahl?” Pitt sophomore Jenn McLaughlin hesitantly guessed when asked who the current mayor was.

“I didn’t even know who the mayor was until you just said something,” joked Steve Sullivan, a Pitt sophomore from Buffalo, N.Y., majoring in pre-medicine biology.

“I know that Bob O’Connor died, and that’s about it,” said Pitt sophomore, Katie Filous, from Columbus, Ohio.

So, are these students going to vote?

“Not unless I’m walking to class and someone hands me a ballot,” Sullivan said with a laugh.

About 51 percent of people 18 to 24 years old registered to vote in the 2004 presidential elections. Only about 41 percent of those registered actually voted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But David Barker, an associate professor of political science at Pitt, said that young people voted at higher levels in 2004 and in 2006 than they had in a generation.

And while there tends to be a drop-off in turnout when going from national to local elections, Pitt assistant professor of political science Jonathan Woon said it’s just the way it is.

“We’re all taught in school when we’re young that voting is an important civic duty, but quite frankly, when people are left to make their own decisions, it’s not that important to them,” Woon said in an e-mail. “I don’t attach any kind of negative value judgment to it – it’s just the way things are.”

Woon added that, for the most part, young people just don’t see the elections as relevant to their everyday lives.

Students tend to feel, he said, that choosing one party or candidate over the other doesn’t have any immediate impact on them.

Pitt College Democrats vice president Lissa Geiger agreed and said that sometimes students have trouble jumping through the hoops of voting.

She added that students might have not yet established a party identification, so they don’t want to register.

Or, students underestimate their own knowledge of political issues at times. For example, Geiger said, a student might oppose the War in Iraq, but she doesn’t want to vote for a candidate just because that candidate also opposes the war.

“Other students think that they want to stay registered to vote at home, but then in local elections, they realize that they don’t even know any of their local candidates,” Geiger said. “And for those students who do register at school, they move so frequently that it is difficult to keep their voter registration updated and find out where their polling places are located.”

But, according to Woon, that might change.

“Once students graduate from college, get full-time jobs, start paying significant amounts of taxes and see how government policies affect their jobs and livelihood – then people tend to start paying much more attention to public affairs,” Woon said.

But he added that they simply have other things on their minds, which contributes to their lack of interest in local elections.

“It is natural – school, hormones, music,” Barker said. “They haven’t had enough years to be fully socialized politically.”

Research shows, Barker said, that people become politically mature at some point in their twenties.

“I think they see it as it matters less to them,” Mark DeSantis, the Republican mayoral candidate, said. “Many of the students are not from here, and they don’t intend to stay here. That’s natural, but they should appreciate local government.”

“I don’t follow politics,” said Kate Korzuch, a 17-year-old Pitt freshman nutrition major from Philadelphia. “Maybe I will when I’m older, but right now, it doesn’t really affect me.”

This attitude that students think politics doesn’t affect them, Pitt College Democrats president Jim Sheppard said, is why it’s hard for some students to care or pay attention to them.

“College students are so busy with academics and exams and social life that it’s hard to see when they should sit down and educate themselves about the candidates,” Sheppard said.

But he maintained that politics do affect them, whether or not they believe it.

So, what should college students pay attention to in the upcoming elections?

For one thing, lack of jobs is an issue, Sheppard said, and it will be quite prevalent in the city elections.

“When we leave college, we’re going to want jobs,” Sheppard said. “If students don’t get involved now and they do stay in Pittsburgh, there may not be a job for them when they graduate.”

DeSantis agreed that students need to take interest in certain issues.

“Things like public safety are a big deal, particularly around the schools,” DeSantis said. “The quality of government really does affect the students.”

Woon said these local elections tend to matter more to people who are directly affected by the matters at stake, especially education and property taxes.

“However, I think some people who take these elections seriously just have too much time on their hands,” Woon said, “and for some reason care too much about these issues.”

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said that students can learn more about politics by simply attending events and lectures given by political figures, as he did last Tuesday in the William Pitt Union.

“We’re going to make some decisions based on what’s in the best interest of long-term sustainability in the city,” the mayor said. “And I think that’s what college voters in the city of Pittsburgh should look at.”

DeSantis said that Pittsburgh is in a financial crisis, and if students have it in their minds that they want to stay after they graduate, Pittsburgh needs to become thriving, or people will only come to the city simply to pass through it.

“Whether you support me or my opponent, I want to encourage every student to get out there and vote and fight for their city,” DeSantis said. “There’s no better time than the present to get involved and understand what these elections are about.”

Voters must be registered for the November elections by Saturday, Oct. 6, according to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania website.

In order to qualify for voter registration in Pennsylvania, the website said, students must be at least the age of 18, U.S. citizens for at least one month and residents of Pennsylvania and their election districts for at least 30 days.

Students may be eligible to vote in Pennsylvania even if they are classified as being “out of state” by their college or university, the website said.

Students have the right to vote at either their school locality, if they are not returning home in time for the elections, or their home locality.

The website said students can register to vote in person at a county voter registration commission or other designated sites, which can be found online at the Department of State’s website, www.votespa.com.

Or, students can register to vote by mail by obtaining a mail application form prescribed by the state or federal government, printing the application from the Department of State’s website, or completing the online application form also available on the website.

According to the website, students also have the option of registering to vote at a Department of Transportation photo license center when they obtain or update their driver’s license. They can also register at many other state government offices, such as armed forces recruitment centers and county mental health and mental retardation offices.

However, voting at home might call for using an absentee ballot, which requires a student to first apply to the county board of elections for a paper absentee ballot, receive it in the mail and then send it back to them.

The website said an application for an absentee ballot must be completed, signed by the voter and received by the county board of elections no later than 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before election day, which, in these particular elections, is Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Each voter’s polling place location is listed on his voter identification card.

On election day, all voters who appear at a polling place for the first time must show proof of identification, which include a Pennsylvania driver’s license, an ID issued by any Commonwealth agency, an ID issued by the U.S. government, a U.S. passport, a U.S. armed forces ID, a student ID or an employee ID.

Non-photo identification must include the voter’s name and address, according to the website.

For more information on voter registration and the voting process, visit