Fresno State voter turnout low despite initiatives for students

By Shannon Milliken
The Collegian

While many predicted last week’s election to have a higher voter turnout because it was considered to be a more controversial election, many Fresno State students chose not to vote.

Fresno State occupational therapy major Rebecca Stokes said she believes a lot of students are too busy with school and work to think about voting. “I think they should give you two days to go vote,” Stokes said. “Honestly, I didn’t know it was Election Day until I got up and turned on ‘Good Morning America.’”

Stokes said she usually votes and wishes she would have voted this year. Kayley Allen, a Fresno State freshman, said she didn’t vote because she didn’t register in time. She turned 18 about a month before the registration deadline, but didn’t get to it soon enough. Allen, who plans to register and vote next year, was pleased the Democratic party had regained control of the Senate.

She also was happy with Schwarzenegger’s reelection. “I think it seems to be okay with him so far because he’s started to reform some things he said he was going to reform,” Allen said.

However, Allen was hoping to see Proposition 85 pass, but she did not exercise her vote for it.

Thomas Holyoke, a Fresno State Political Science professor, said he wouldn’t have expected students to vote. “Unfortunately, that’s not a surprise,” Holyoke said.

“Historically, people that age don’t tend to vote.” Holyoke warned against not voting, because he said politicians don’t pay attention to the demographic groups that don’t usually vote. He believes students should begin voting because “we’re starting to see that it’s a myth that one person’s vote doesn’t matter.”

As for last week’s election results, Holyoke was not surprised about the outcome of the California governor election. “Phil Angelides never attracted the voters,” Holyoke said. “I would’ve been shocked if Schwarzenegger had lost.”

Holyoke said he didn’t expect the Democrats to regain control of the House because he thought they would lose in Virginia. However, Holyoke said he was pretty sure that the two more controversial items among the young people on this ballot, Propositions 85 and 86, would fail, as they did.

“I kind of expected Proposition 85 to fail because something like it was on the ballot last year and failed,” Holyoke said. “With Proposition 86, I don’t think the electorate was in the mood for any taxes, even on something like cigarettes.”

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