With elections coming next week, some local political activists fear college students are too apathetic toward political matters and voting.

"We live in this great country and it's our responsibility to take part in the democratic process," said UVSC Student Government Chief Justice Richie Wilcox. "It's up to us to choose our leaders. It's our voting that chooses the people who make the decisions. If college students could realize the power, if all the students voted, we'd have a pretty powerful vote."

According the U.S. Census Bureau, 32.3 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in 2000. In Utah, only about 1 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 25 voted.

College students feel they are too busy to vote and may be confused about the voting process outside of their home state, said Katie Foutz, voter outreach coordinator for the lieutenant governor's office.

BYU College Republicans President Erica Hekking said students are not well-informed about the candidates and issues. Also with school and work, voting is not a priority.

"There is a lot of apathy, but also it's not important at this stage," Hekking said.

Jordnana Choucair, vice-president of the Student Advisory Council, agreed that many college students cannot see how many of the issues affect them locally.

"I just think it's a busy time for students," Choucair said. "When it's more of a local thing they see how these issues have more effect. In the state level and national, they don't see a big correlation between how it affects them."

Wilcox said right now students think they have no impact on issues.

"Generally the attitude is a feeling of not having any power and not being able to change anything or knowing what differences they can make," he said.

Some candidates agree that college students could have more of an impact.

"It's an untapped potential," said Clint Warby, communications director for Jim Matheson. "It's always been a dilemma to try to get college students more enthused about it."

College students are not specifically targeted by the congressional candidates, but they are an important part of campaigning, Warby said.

Emily Christensen, press secretary for John Swallow, R-Utah, said in making critical decisions in where to campaign, college students are not a fundamental factor.

Yet Swallow has been working on getting the college generation involved and understanding the political process, she said.

The lieutenant governor's office has tried to increase voting of all ages, and over the past couple years has focused more on getting college students involved.

Lt. Gov. Olene Walker organized a council of students from the different colleges in Utah in 2000. Eleven schools, the College Republicans and College Democrats are members of the Utah College Council on Civic Awareness.

Once a month the council meets to discuss political issues. Each representative brings ideas from their schools to discuss such as educational funding. When the legislative session begins, a couple of the ideas will be lobbied.

As a tool to get people more involved, the lieutenant governor's office distributed their "Utah Voter Information Pamphlet" through every newspaper at the beginning of September.

The week of Sept. 23 was Get Out and Vote Week statewide. Walker spoke to several schools about the importance of voting and challenged the schools to get their students to commit to vote.

To try to increase college voting, all the schools participating in the council had a competition to see who could get the greatest proportion of their students to commit to vote.

BYU participated in the competition, and though they didn't win, the number of students who registered to vote increased significantly from past years.

Choucair said the focus of this year's campaign was to educate students on registering to vote.

"Many of the students don't know what the issues are," she said. "It's a little challenge to get students educated and ways they can be voter active why they are at school."

From Sept. 23-27, SAC had booths inside and outside the Wilkinson Student Center and other places on campus. They also tried to educate students about the issues by going to the dorms and talking to students.

This year in their voter registration campaign, 1,155 students registered. In past years, only around 200 students registered through BYUSA.

Other clubs on campus also helped to increase voter registration among college students.

The College Republicans and the College Democrats allowed students to register at their booths set up in the Wilkinson Center.

The College Republicans also tried to keep their members informed by having speakers, such as Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and giving them information about the registration process.

Both clubs also promoted getting more involved in campaigns for candidates.

"The students don't understand how much of an impact they can have in politics by voting and getting involved," Hekking said.

UVSC also gave students the opportunity to register to vote and learn more about the candidates.

UVSC held a voter registration drive. Around 600 students registered to vote. Fifty-four percent of the student body is from Utah.

Unlike BYU, most UVSC students are willing to register and vote in Utah, Wilcox said.

Only 31 percent of BYU students are from Utah. Since the majority of students are from out of state, they don't want to register in Utah.

"A lot don't want to give up residency in their home state," Choicair said.

Hekking said no matter where a student votes, it is just important they vote.

"It's just as good to vote in their own states absentee ballot if they can," she said.

But a problem with voting absentee is that many students don't understand how the application works.

The Utah elections and the federal elections Web site include instructions and the application for the absentee ballot.

Hekking said getting involved in campaigning is a great opportunity and fun.

"A lot of Republican candidates have attributed their success to college students," she said. "If students recognized that more, they would be more willing to be involved."

Even with all the work this year to get students informed, many still believe more can be done.

Copyright Brigham Young University 31 Oct 2002