Less Than Super

On the day of the largest primary in the Democratic race for the presidency - so important it is dubbed Super Tuesday - just 40 UB students out of at least 600 eligible voters in the two UB voting districts turned out to vote yesterday at the Student Union.

According to data from the Erie County Board of Elections, Sen. John Kerry had the strongest showing at UB on Super Tuesday, taking 57.5 percent of the vote in a precinct that includes Creekside Village, the Ellicott Complex, the Governors Residence Halls, and Hadley Village.

UB's support for Kerry last night mirrored his success statewide, where Kerry got over 60 percent of the vote. Observers expected Sen. John Edwards, his closest competitor, to drop out of the race this morning.

Even though the turnout was low, inspectors who oversaw the voting liked what they saw of those who did show up.

"The turnout was very low, but the students that did come in were very interested and eager to vote," said Election Inspector Terry Stoner. "We had to turn some away, though, because they weren't registered for this district."

Students who wanted to vote but weren't properly registered became something of a theme for the day, as a handful of students walked away wondering why they didn't know about necessary address changes and absentee ballots.

"I thought I'd be able to vote here. It seems like a lot of people are having this problem," said Pete Belin, a sophomore psychology major. "The students should be made aware of this. I'm registered to vote in Niagara County, which is only 20 minutes away, but I have no way of getting there so I'm probably going to wind up not voting."

While low voter turnout has always been a problem at the polls, especially at colleges, yesterday's confusion over voter eligibility was particularly aggravating for election inspectors.

"We had to turn away as many students as have voted," said John Medwid, another election inspector. "The kids just don't realize they can get absentee ballots or submit a change of address."

"The kids that come here are interested in voting, but they get discouraged by the rules and regulations," said Election Inspector Rhea Mathien. "Someone should really do something to increase awareness of absentee ballots and address change forms."

Whether eligible to vote or not, none of the students who arrived at the various polling stations were surprised to be practically the only ones there.

"There is very little turnout on campus," said Christopher Conroy, a senior political science major and a member of the Erie County Democratic Committee for this election district. "Most people don't know that you can register here. Plus, it's not a very competitive primary. Kerry will probably win."

Edwards was second in the UB precincts with 17.5 percent of the vote. Trailing Edwards were Rep. Dennis Kucinich (12.5 percent), Howard Dean (10 percent) and Al Sharpton (2.5 percent).

According to Medwid, the fact that Sen. John Kerry was a front-runner going into the election discouraged young voters who assumed Kerry would win and their vote wouldn't make a difference in the outcome of the primary.

"There are very few elections that are determined by one or two votes, but it's still important," he said. "These kids are interested in the current politics, so they need to get out there and exercise their right to vote."