Low turnout at event ends week of voter awareness

A week of lectures, film screenings and networking events came to an anticlimactic end last night as 15 students showed up for VoteSmart, the final event in the BU Votes series.

Student Union President Brooke Feldman, who planned VoteSmart as a part of a student-led, campus-wide initiative, said she was disappointed by the event's low turnout.

"I feel it is incredible, given the amount of advertising, how few students are interested in their government, how few decided to attend," the School of Education junior said.

Massachusetts League of Women Voters member and BU alum Jo-Ann Berry spoke to a small group of students about different aspects of voter education, from the importance of registering to vote to the process of obtaining an absentee ballot. However, what was originally conceived as a lecture soon became a discussion forum for the small group.

Berry said many first-time programs have unreliable turnout, she said she would gladly speak again for BU Votes, a non-partisan coalition of BU student groups.

In addition to the last-minute change in format, BU Votes organizers had to replace the night's originally scheduled speaker, League president Madhu Sridhar, on short notice, Feldman said.

"Jo-Ann was great, and I just wish more students could have had the opportunity to hear her," Feldman said.

Berry said she did not mind "preaching to the crowd." She spoke about the purpose of the League of Women Voters and explained various forms of voter participation. She covered lesser-known topics, including how to become a poll worker for elections and the best ways to contact local representatives.

Although Berry came prepared to address why students should vote, the discussion soon veered to the question of where students should vote.

BU Votes Chair Rani Woods said student turnout in Massachusetts is particularly important this year.

"This election is an important indicator of what we're going to see in 2008," the College of Arts and Sciences junior said.

However, Berry said getting students to vote in the first place is her priority.

"Wherever a student feels they should vote, they should vote," she said after the event. "As long as you vote somewhere."

School of Management sophomore Drew Phillips said he approved of Berry's more general message that students should vote and be involved in politics, regardless of affiliation or location.

"A problem we're facing right now is that students already know what frustrates them and what they want to see changed," he said. "But people honestly don't know what their vote can do . . . especially at the local level."

VoteSmart marked the end of the series of lectures, film screenings and activities BU Votes has held around campus in the past week. According to Woods, BU Votes wanted to present a wide variety of events to appeal to as many potential student voters as possible.

"Student apathy was a problem around campus," Woods said. "We wanted to create more of a political campaign on campus [to address] voter registration."

Woods said BU Votes will have a voter registration table at BU's Funniest Student Competition in BU Central tomorrow night.