Election enthusiasm lacks among youngest voters

Citizens of Virginia elected Democrat Terry McAuliffe as governor in Tuesday's election, choosing him over Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis. McAuliffe won with 47.4 percent of the votes. Cuccinelli gathered 45.8 percent of the votes.

Before Election Day, multiple media outlets reported concern that the state would have a low voter turnout, because many citizens did not fully support either major-party candidate.

Turnout was higher than expected, but it still lacked among members of the youngest demographic.

It is a recurring pattern that young adults, including college students, are less likely to vote than other voters. According to the Center for Civic Information and Research, only 45 percent of young people (ages 18 to 29) voted in the United States in 2012. This statistic is even lower for elections that are not presidential, such as this year's.

These trends did not bypass the state of Virginia, where there was a general feeling of apathy among college students toward the 2013 election.

At University of Virginia, for example, the lack of enthusiasm was surprising, considering the school's typical interest in politics, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. And at George Mason University, two students highlighted their classmates' political ignorance in a YouTube video they made, titled "#UninformedCollegeStudents: VA Election Edition."

University of Richmond generated a somewhat moderate level of interest, considering its small size and high percentage of international students, who could not vote.

Richmond provided a shuttle that took students who were registered to vote with their campus addresses to and from their polling place: Westhampton Baptist Church. Dave Cosby, an employee at the Center for Civic Engagement, said it was his sixth year driving the Election Day shuttle. Cosby said the presidential elections had drawn a lot of students, but "the local elections are always smaller."

The shuttle picked up students from Tyler Haynes Commons every half hour from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except between 2 and 3 p.m. At 12 p.m., Cosby said he had only driven five students all morning. Three of those were first-years who voted for the first time.

The CCE hosted a results viewing party in the Commons, starting at 7 p.m. Adrienne Piazza, manager of educational initiatives and leadership development, worked with other CCE employees to organize and execute the event.

Piazza has attended university election night events every year since she started working at the CCE in 2007. She said attendance had always varied, from "huge turnouts" for presidential elections to "mixed" turnouts for local elections.

"These events are part of our sense of gathering people to talk about important issues," Piazza said. The party fit into the CCE's mission: to "transform student learning, deepen faculty engagement and partner with community organizations for social change."

Devin DeFrancesco, a junior from Mississippi, said he attended the CCE party because he was a political science major. He registered to vote in Virginia years ago, and helped other students register through initiatives by the Roosevelt Institute his first two years on campus.

"I'm a liberal voter," DeFrancesco said. He took Cosby's shuttle to Westhampton Baptist Church and voted for McAuliffe. DeFrancesco said attendance seemed to increase in the afternoon: There were about 10 students on the 3 p.m. bus.

At the party, DeFrancesco met and talked with Kevin Chun, a first-year student from California. Chun said he had gone to the CCE party because he was "curious as to where Virginia stands politically."

Chun also said he had been too busy with classes and volunteering to vote in the Virginia election, but that he would have voted for Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis for governor.

Approximately 20 students attended the event, coming and going until CNN announced the projection of McAuliffe to win at 9:54 p.m. Two of these were international students from Pakistan and the United Kingdom who were unable to vote but were still deeply interested in Virginia politics.

The CCE's next election-related event will be a lunchtime Brown Bag Discussion of the results, featuring a panel of Richmond students, at 12:30 p.m. Friday. The schedule of this semester's remaining Brown Bag Discussions is found at: http://engage.richmond.edu.

Contact staff writer Catherine Sinclair at catherine.sinclair@richmond.edu