Few students voted in Tuesday’s Gainesville City Commission, but history shows this is the norm.
Out of 4,471 voters registered for the Reitz Union precinct, 57 voted.
Past elections haven’t been favorable either. In the mayoral election last March, 87 people voted at the Reitz Union precinct out of 4,465 registered voters.
In the November midterm election, 804 of 4,709 registered people cast votes.
UF students don’t always think of Gainesville as their home because they don’t settle in the town after graduation, said Pam Carpenter, supervisor of elections.
“Sometimes students feel that it doesn’t have an impact on them,” she said earlier this month.
Chip Skambis, a 19-year-old UF English major, spent Tuesday trying to get his friends to vote.
Skambis said he voted in Tuesday’s election and the election for mayor last year.
He said most students just don’t care about city politics because the issues are on a smaller scale.
“It’s difficult to get people to care about the little things,” he said.
Stacy Eichner, president of UF College Democrats, said students don’t know when Election Day is.
“Mainly, students are just unaware,” she said. “And people don’t see the importance in voting in them.”
But city elections are important, Eichner said. She said bus systems are an issue students can relate to.
Carpenter said students are more likely to vote in a presidential election than a city election.
“For whatever reason, students are highly involved in the national elections, sort of involved in the gubernatorial and the participation really declines for the city election,” she said.
