By Nicole HoNg, Amie NiNH and cHris KirK

the daily northwestern

Student turnout was abysmal for Tuesday’s citywide elections, despite get-out-the-vote efforts and candidate forums on Northwestern's campus.

“This is one of the slowest, deadest and most boring-est elections I have ever seen in my life,”

said Tamara Wilson, a Republican judge working the polls at Patten Gym, which was virtually deserted for most of the day.

In the 13 hours the polls were open, only about 10 voters cast their ballot at Patten, election workers said. The four election

judges were left sitting alone in the empty entrance of the gym, doing their best to entertain them-selves with books and other distractions as the hours ticked by and the voters stayed home.

“I am pretty pooped,” said supply judge Janice Jackson. “It’s been a slow day.”

The Parkes Hall polling location had similar numbers – about 25 people voted the entire day, workers said.

The numbers come in stark contrast to the last city election. In 2005, students voted in droves and determined the winner in the race for First Ward alderman. They voted 217-15 in favor of Cheryl Wollin, who eventually won by 80 votes.

Some election workers said they expected the low student turnout this year.

“I kind of anticipated it, because it’s anticli-mactic compared to the most historic presidential election in 30 or 40 years,” Jackson said. “People aren’t really informed to vote for anybody because they don’t know who’s running for what.”

What’s the cause of the overwhelming student apathy? Phil Hale, the equipment manager at Pat-ten’s precinct, guessed the problem applies to many college campuses, not just NU.

“I work at Loyola University, and I think our students would be just as apathetic, and it’s too bad,” Hale said. “This really is where people live. It’s the mayor, it’s the aldermen, it’s the commis-sioners that make the day-to-day deci-sions that impact students far more than the president of the United States does.”

Election fatigue from Novem-ber’s presidential election may explain the lack of student voters, said Commu-nication senior Jayla Gray, who joined Judy Fiske’s campaign for First Ward alderman af-ter her parents moved to Evanston two years ago.

“A lot of it is the presidential election was such a big deal that some people wanted to go register from their home state,” Gray said. “Most students can’t vote here.”

There were a few bright spots.According to election judges at the Seabury-

Western Theological Seminary location, 27 per-cent to 28 percent of registered voters in the pre-cinct had already voted by 3:30 p.m. Evanston resident William McIntosh said he voted for may-oral candidate Elizabeth Tisdahl in part because of her positions on NU.

“We decided (Tisdahl) made more sense for Evanston because she maintains a more civil posi-tion with respect to the university,” McIntosh said.

Some NU students joined up with Evanston candidates. SESP junior Jeremiah Tillman served as a poll watcher for mayoral candidate Barnaby Dinges. Tillman, who has been working on the Dinges campaign since August, said he was disap-pointed his interest in the civic process wasn’t mirrored by those students who didn’t vote.

“We are a selfish campus and a lot of people don’t want to admit that,” Tillman said. “Real civil rights and human service are about caring about the community all around you and not just near you.”

The head of NU Pic[K]s, an organization that tried to get students involved in the election, said the turnout was “disheartening.” Lillian Cheng, a Weinberg sophomore, said she hopes an NU stu-dent will run in the future.

Hale said the day’s failure of a turnout should serve as a lesson to students: If they don’t bother to vote, they shouldn’t bother to complain either.

“You have no right to protest, you have no right to vent any kind of displeasure with any unit of government if you choose not to vote,” Hale said. “It’s just that simple.”

nicolehong2012@u.northwestern.eduamieninh2012@u.northwestern.edu

cperryk@gmail.com

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009 | 3NeWs | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN vote 2009

‘Disheartening’ NU turnout for Evanston elections

BriAN roseNtHAl ANd cHris KirK/tHe dAily NortHWesterN

Students campaign near the polls for Judy Fiske, who beat Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st) on Tuesday night for first ward alderman. Fiske was declared the winner after a tense rematch of the 2005 election that resulted in a lawsuit over alleged voter fraud for Wollin at Northwestern.

Two newcomers will join two incumbents on the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education, after an extremely close election Tuesday.

Andrew Pigozzi and Jerome Summers reclaimed their positions on the board, and Tracy Quattrocki and Kim Weaver won the remaining available seats on the seven-member board.

Christopher Hawker, who did not earn a seat on the board, rounded out the field of candidates.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Quattrocki clearly led the election, earning nearly 26 percent of the vote, while the rest of the candidates each hovered around 18 percent. Weaver was at 18.9 percent, Sum-mers at 18.7 percent, Pigozzi at 18.7 percent and Hawker at 17.8 percent.

The candidates said they expected the race to come down to the wire.

“Knowing the support of some of the candidates and the organization of their campaigns led me to believe that the front-runner would do very well and the rest of the candidates would be close,” Pigozzi said.

Although the race was competitive, the newly elected board members said they are optimistic.

“I wouldn’t mind serving with any of them,” Summers said. “We as a board need to improve all the time, so it’s good to have some different perspectives in there.”

Outgoing Board President Mary Erickson said she has high hopes for the new board.

“The process usually goes well and pro-duces good people,” she said. “I have great respect for them because I know what they will be doing and how much they’re going to be doing.”

Candidates for Evanston Township High School District 202 school board ran unop-posed. Gretchen Livingston, Deborah Gra-ham, Rachel Hayman and Martha Burns will serve for the next four years.

— EMILY WRAY

Two fresh faces to populate District 65 Board of Education

“People aren’t really informed to vote … because they don’t know who’s running for what.”

Janice Jackson Supply judge

Judy Fiske

63%Cheryl Wollin

37%

first ward

elliot dudnik

26%hoWard

hartenstein

23%

fourth ward

donald Wilson

51%

Jane Grover

59%kevin o’Connor

9%

seventh ward

John Zbesko

32%

Coleen burrus

59%MiChael drennan

13%

ninth ward

MiMi Peterson

28%

resideNts elect NeW city couNcil

Fo r mo r e e l e c t i o n co ve r a ge , ch e ck ou t w w w.da i l y n o r t hwe s t e r n .c om

delores holMes

75%adrian dortCh

25%

fifth ward

“I was very

excited. I was

pleased that

we had a little

bit of a

different

campaign.”

“I'm just very

pleased that the work

I’ve done in the past

four years has been

appreciated by

Evanston

residents."

ChristoPher hart

23%Mark sloane

36%

sixth ward

Mark tendaM

41%

“It’s a mixture of

emotions... I

think it’s

going to be a

really, really

good council.”

“I had lots of

great support

in the seventh

ward who were

helping me

every step of

the way.”

“I’m feeling really

excited and

exhausted. We

ran a positive

campaign, and

I think voters

responded well.”

— DonalD Wilson

— Mark TEnDaM— DElorEs

HolMEs

— JanE GrovEr

— ColEEn Burrus

1

2 43

6 7

5

98

evanston Wards

By tHe NumBers

24

23210

Total votes cast Tuesday in the sixth precinct of the First Ward (Parkes Hall)

Total votes cast in 2005 in that precinct

Approximate number of voters at Patten Gym

Source: Election judges