Student voters a presence at polls

As the sun rose on election day, political campaign signs littered the lawns of residence halls. High school students from Bloomington North and South passed out candidate fliers in front of Assembly Hall. The campus was quiet and things were running smoothly at the various election sites.\nBy 8:30 a.m., election officials at Assembly Hall had counted more than 50 voters from four different precincts. Bill Ballew, the inspector for Bloomington district 13, said he had seen a steady turnout since the polls opened at 6 a.m. and the voters had been a mix of students and local residents.\nAt 9 a.m. only nine students had voted at Briscoe Quad, and volunteer Ricardo Montelongo said he didn't expect the pace to increase through the rest of the day.\nMontelongo, a doctoral student in higher education, said, "Hopefully, when I'm a faculty member some day, I can convince more students to come out and vote."\nThe 26th Amendment to the Constitution lowered the national voting age to 18. But according to the National Association of Secretaries of State Web site, less than a third of people younger than 24 actually show up to vote on election days. \nHarvard's Vanishing Voter Project Web site also charges that the young voting block is affected with chronic apathy.\nBut freshman Julia Christensen, a volunteer at the Read Center voting center, said it was too early to predict such a trend for this election.\n"We've had over 20 people come in so far and it's only 9:15 (a.m.)," Christensen said. "Everyone who has been through seems to be really proud. One student even had us take his picture in front of a (voting) booth."\nFreshman Megan Freyer, who voted at Read, said, "I'm not sure if my vote will make a difference, but we (Americans) have this wonderful privilege to vote. A lot of people in the world don't have that right and I would feel guilty if I didn't exercise mine."\nOfficials at Eigenmann Quad said 26 people had voted before 10 a.m. Freshman Robert Makowski said he showed up early because he knew who he was going to vote for and he wanted to make sure his voice was heard in the election.\nMany students came to the booths knowing whom they were going to vote for. But some students made their decisions as they voted.\nJunior Chris Hiter was at Briscoe before 9 a.m. so he could make it to work on time.\n"I voted for (Ralph) Nader at the last minute," Hiter said. "At first I couldn't choose a candidate for president, but when I started to fill out my ballot I realized that Gore doesn't really have a chance here in Indiana and a vote for Nader would really mean something."\nThe signs at Read that directed students to the voting center read, "Need to vote?" More than 100 IU students said "yes" to that question before the polling sites had been open for a full four hours. Since many college students don't even climb out of bed until 10 a.m., those numbers might indicate the days of youthful election apathy are numbered.