Despite historically dismal voter turnout statistics for April elections, City Council President Howard White said it’s important for students to vote in Tuesday’s election.
“There’s going to be so many issues that affect students in the next (City Council) term,” he said. “There are all kinds of issues that students can listen to candidates and see what they are going to do about them.”
Hot topics in this year’s election include parking around the university, conditional use permits and minimum wage changes, White said.
City Council related items on Tuesday’s ballot include Council president and an alderperson for each of the five districts. Incumbent Toby Biegel will face opponent Adrian Klenz in the District 3 race, while UW-Eau Claire junior Chad Nelson will challenge incumbent Bob Von Haden.
Current District 1 councilman David Adler is running against Al Smith for the Council’s presidency.
Senior Cathy Hanson said because of low student voter turnout in the past, issues affecting students have not been represented.
“Decisions City Council makes are affecting students, but (students) don’t think it’s very important to vote because they’re only living here for four years,” said Hanson, who organized the City Council Cabaret Tuesday at House of Rock, 422 Water St.
In the April 2004 election, 254 votes were cast in Ward 20 and 32 votes in Ward 24, areas consisting mostly of students, according to Eau Claire election records. These numbers translate into 6.9 percent of voters in Ward 20 and 8.8 percent in Ward 24.
However, they still represent an increase from 2003, when 3.8 percent of voters turned out in Ward 20 and 4.1 percent in Ward 24.
In April 2002, Ward 2 had a 2 percent voter turnout and not a single vote was cast in Ward 24.
Statistics like this make it hard for students to be represented when the demographic consistently doesn’t show up to vote, Hanson said.
“Just because you’re only here for four years,” she said, “doesn’t mean that students coming here in the future won’t have the same interests.”
