The Sundial surveyed potential voters at The Ohio State University the day after Election Day. 1,200 registered students were asked, “did you vote?” in the general election to gauge political participation of the student body.
10 percent of the students The Sundial contacted were stupefied by the question. The survey phone call from was answered during Professor Steinhardt’s “boring Voters and Elections” lecture, and respondents were half asleep when they answered. The Sundial also had to repeat the question to 100 respondents that were at a lame post-election party they would rather have left.
Many respondents said they voted but showed a vague understanding of the issues. Issue 3, the marijuana legalization issue, was the motivation for 12 percent of the student vote. In other words, 12 percent of the respondents admitted to using and smoking pot. At least 104 of those students were stoned during the survey. 27 percent voted merely because they had a fake ID and don’t go to the bars on a Tuesday night. If Election Day fell on a Friday night, voter turnout of students under 21 would have fallen at least 27 percent.
Almost half of the students surveyed did not vote, and they weren’t ambivalent about it. 26 percent of students voted in an election last season. They felt that they would be abusing the system if they voted in two consecutive elections when they already had an “I Voted” sticker on their notebook. According to one former voter, two stickers would have been redundant and “putting on airs.” Another 22 percent of voters didn’t want to waste their vote on this election when a presidential election was forthcoming.
The general election results show an improvement from The Sundial’s spring survey on campus after the Undergraduate Student Government election. In that survey, a majority of students said they voted for “Abbey Road,” and a surprising plurality of students said they wrote-in quarterback Cardale Jones.
-Travis Filicky, Staff Member