Around Campus: Leave the box blank

By: S.P. Sullivan, Collegian Columnist

Posted: 11/6/08

I never thought I'd say this, but next time, don't vote. At least, not if you didn't do your homework.

University of Massachusetts students went in droves to the polls Tuesday. Most went to elect their preferred presidential candidate, to say no on 1 or yes on 2.

Very few, however, knew anything about congressional candidates.

I rode the Student Government Association-funded buses back and forth between Bangs Amherst Community Center and Wildwood Elementary School covering the student reaction to the House of Representatives race between incumbent John Olver and challenger Nathan Bech on Tuesday.

The student reaction was pretty straightforward: "Who?"

Polling voters about their choices for U.S. representative in the Bay State's 1st Congressional district, I found very few people who had informed themselves on the candidates, and even fewer who could name them going into the voting booth.

This was a historical election for youth voter turnout, and student groups on campus should be commended for educating UMass voters on the presidential candidates and ballot initiatives - and for getting out the vote.

Tracie Konopinski, a campus organizer for MassPIRG, said in a phone interview Tuesday that student turnout at Bangs Amherst Center was unprecedented.

"We've been talking to community members that have been voting at Bangs for over 10 years and they said they've never seen this many students come out," she said.

This surge in student civic engagement should be a point of pride for the University community. But next time, if you don't recognize the names in the congressional election slots, just don't check the box.

I asked one woman heading into the polls at Bangs Amherst Center who she was voting for as congressman.

"Oh, I don't know," she said.

I told her that's what a lot of people were saying: That they hadn't realized they'd be voting for local and state officials.

"You should do your story on that," she said.

I said that's the way the story was shaping up. I wondered if she was just going to abstain from voting for congressional candidates.

"Oh, no," she said. "I'll vote for one of them. I just don't know anything about them."

Oh, I said. Can I get your full name?

"No," she said. "I don't want to look stupid."

Looking stupid in a newspaper isn't half as bad as voting stupid in the booth.

UMass student Chakdor Lokyitsanj was heading out of the polls when I approached him to get his take on the House race. He looked slightly embarrassed when I asked him how he voted.

"I left it blank because I had no idea who they were," he said.

What Lokyitsanj didn't realize is that he did the best thing someone who wasn't concerned with the state election could've done: He voted for his presidential candidate and ballot questions, but when it came to Congress, he left the choosing to people who had read up on the candidates.

College towns make up an unusual voting bloc because they create a large concentration of voters who, although they may be registered in the area, don't have (or at least don't think they have) as large stake in the outcome of local elections. But 18,000 undergrads - especially 18,000 uninformed undergrads - muddle up the results of an election by applying the Eeny, meeny, miny moe method.

Of course, an educated electorate takes effort on both sides. While campaign literature for the presidential candidates and ballot questions 1 and 2 were ubiquitous up until Election Day, Congressional candidates were nowhere to be found, save for Republican Keith C. McCormic, who spoke on campus to a small crowd earlier this week. McCormic is a UMass alumnus who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Stan Rosenberg for his seat.

But the other candidates weren't represented on campus. They missed out on a pretty huge captive audience.

"We have a plethora of ways to get information out there," said Meagan Day, who was standing outside the Wildwood polling place on Tuesday. "And I feel like they didn't get utilized."

I approached Day and her friends to see what they thought about the House race. They were having an intelligent conversation about election issues - everything from Barack Obama to dog racing to Question 2.

But they didn't know anything about Olver and Bech.

Day said she had done her homework on most of the stuff on the ballot, but there was a lot she hadn't heard of before walking into the booth.

"On a few I said, 'No thanks, I'll skip that one.'"

In certain instances not voting does more good than voting.

S.P. Sullivan is Collegian columnist. He can be reached at spsulliv@dailycollegian.com.

© Copyright 2009 The Daily Collegian