US Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain are the winners of the New York State Closed Primary Election held Tuesday, Feb. 5. Voting began at 5:30 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. on campus.
University students cast votes in the state's Closed Primary at 142 Student Union. Only those who were registered in the specific district as a Republican or Democrat were able to vote for a candidate in their designated party at the polling place on campus.
According to Joe Wisnet, an election inspector, students' misconceptions of voting regulations led to the low voter turnout.
"We have had 20 people who cast votes. We had about 15 paper ballots so far," Wisnet said at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Students have mistaken their ability to vote on campus if they registered in another district, according to Wisnet. People can only vote in the district in which they registered to vote. One hundred twenty-four people registered in the University district before the deadline.
"It's a big misconception. If you are not registered here (on campus) you cannot vote here," he said. "If a student lives in Buffalo, they have the notion they are registered in Erie County."
According to Erie County Commissioner Ralph Mohr, the state is partially to blame for the low university voter turnout.
"New York State does not do a great job communicating the requirements of students to vote. Registered individuals have the ability to register where they reside. I don't think that is communicated well to students," Mohr said.
Mohr believes the low number voters on North Campus does not mean students are not actively participating elsewhere.
"It doesn't mean necessarily that students aren't voting. When I was a student I voted by absentee ballot," he said.
Mohr explained that college students should vote. There is an interest in young people to go out and vote but many do not recognize how easy it is to register and vote.
"We should try to broaden franchise as much as we can...college students are an important part of the community," he said.
The Erie County Board of Elections has been working on increasing the number of young people who vote, according to Mohr. A pilot program tries to instill the importance and excitement of voting in children by allowing them access to polling sites where their parents are voting.
"Elementary to high school students were allowed to attend polling sites to get excitement generated about the process," Mohr said.
The program has already made improvements. Bringing children into the voting booths was illegal until Erie County addressed the situation.
"When the kids voting program began, it was illegal. Now it isn't - Erie County got that changed. What we did see, with the community behind us with that project, was an increase."
Before Super Tuesday, on-campus student organizations also attempted to inform students about the process.
UB College Democrats handed out absentee ballot forms provided by the Barack Obama campaign to students, according to the club's Treasurer, Nicholas Orrange. "We are just happy to see students voting. We also had voter registration
forms and were able to register 30 voters, although due to NYS voting laws it was too late for them to vote in the primaries," Orrange said.
According to Orrange, UB College Democrats is working with UB College Republicans to get students registered for future elections.
Concerning the voter turnout Tuesday, Orrange said it is a step in the right direction.
"I was happy to find out by election workers that there were far more young voters than they have ever seen before," Orrange said.
UB College Republicans President, Brad Latone, agrees.
"That is one of the problems with college students. Since most people cannot vote on campus, and absentee ballots are very inconvenient, most college students do not vote," Latone said. "One positive though, is that this election is so highly publicized [that] people know the issues, people know the candidates, and most people I talk to are following politics for the first time, which is a huge step in the right direction."
Erie County Primary Elections were conducted without major issues this year, according to Mohr. There was a problem with the outdated voting booths the county used on Tuesday resulting a brief period of votes on paper and longer wait time.
"In the first few hours we received a number of phone calls where we walked some election inspectors through using the lever machines. Nothing out of the ordinary," Mohr said.
It is not too late for students to get involved with the voting process, Mohr said.
"We'll be going through the process again in the month of September. This is the time where students are coming back to school. They should make sure they register for absentee ballots over the summer and check into what is required of them to vote," Mohr said.
To Latone, party affiliation is not as important as the actual act of voting.
"Republican or Democrat, it doesn't matter, as long as people go out and vote," he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
