A combination of bad weather and bad timing might be some reasons why Tuesday’s City Council election had a low student voter turnout, said Ray Hughes, university lecturer of accounting and finance.

Hughes was elected Tuesday to a seat on City Council and doesn’t think it’s fair to measure student voter turnout by this election.

Many students may have been busy with other things on their first day back from spring break, Hughes said.

Flurries throughout the day dropped almost 3 inches of snow throughout the Eau Claire area, after a week of temperatures in the 40s and 50s.

Thirteen percent of the voting population in Eau Claire turned out to vote on Tuesday. Residents in the Fifth Ward, the area around Water and Menomonie streets where a majority of students live, had only a 1 percent voter turnout. In the 24th Ward, which includes lower campus dorms, no voters turned out.

The student population in some wards does have an impact on low turnouts in those areas, said City Clerk Donna Austad, adding that students do not turn out heavily for local elections.

Out of the eight candidates running for five seats, these five were elected listed in order of top vote getters first: Terry Sheridan, SaiDang Xiong, Ray Hughes, Jane Tappen and Terri Stanley.

As a part of the university and now City Council, Hughes wants to continually work to foster communication between the both arenas.

“Involvement depends on people,” Hughes said.

The total number of voters in this year’s election was 6,464 out of 48,654 possible.