KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2010 / NEWS
COMMUNITY
3A
Low enthusiasm keeps students away from polls
Numbers of voters were down overall in comparison with 2006's midterm election
BY ALLYSON SHAW
ashaw@kansan.com
Forty percent of registered voters in Douglas County voted yesterday, which was a smaller percentage than during the 2006 election, according to Douglas County officials.
Among students, the discrepancy between the turnouts in 2006 and this year was even more dramatic. Jamie Stew, a Douglas County clerk said.
"We know the turnout among students is a lot less than the previous gubernatorial election," Stew said.
Stew contributed the low student turnout to similarly weak campaigns geared toward young people.
Jessica Brooks, a junior from Pleasanton, said she noticed that there wasn't much talk about the election on campus this fall and that she was disappointed by the lack of political enthusiasm.
"There is always a lot more hype for the presidential election," Brooks said. "It's a flaw of the system."
Phillip Wrigley, a 2008 KU graduate, helped operate polls at the Burge Union yesterday. He said he thought the biggest challenge that student voters face was a lack of knowledge, both about politics and about the voting process.
"It's a whole ballot," Wrigley said. "Probably most students have only heard of four of the questions on there."
Wes Gapp, a graduate student from Clinton, N.Y., and Laci Garhart, a graduate student from Hutchinson, Kan., fill out information before voting early Tuesday morning at Plymouth Congressional Church. Plymouth Congressional Church, at Ninth and Vermont streets, was one of more than 60 polling places in Lawrence.
However, Wrigley said that when students weren't familiar with an issue, they depend on other factors such as name recognition.
"That's a good thing because it makes the process very accessible," Wrigley said.
Although the turnout may have been lower this year, there were still students turning up at the polls.
Aaron Dopf, a graduate student from Lawrence, said that he knew many people who voted.
"Most of my friends already have the sticker on," Dopf said.
Kelly Stroda contributed to this story.
Edited by Emily McCoy
Votes, cameras, action
Linda Robinson, Kansas House District 45 Democratic candidate; David Ambler, Vice Chancellor Emeritus; Aubrey McFarland, KU alumna; and Diane Lindeman, of the Board of Regents, examine the final results for District 45 at the Douglas County Courthouse Tuesday night (left to right). Robinson lost to Tom Sloan, the Republican candidate, 56 percent to 43 percent.
KU College Republicans chairwoman Ashley Moretti, a junior from Wichita, claps in approval of a speech given by Lynn Jenkins, the newly elected congresswoman for Kansas' second congressional district, at the Republican watch party in the Sunflower Room of the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka Tuesday night. Moretti and other members of the KU College Republicans, who also attended the watch party, expressed their approval and excitement for the Republican party's "clean sweep" of Kansas in this year's elections.
GOP (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"It's a plan to move forward, Brownback s#d. "We campaigned on the 'Road Map.' We won on the "Road Map." We will govern on the 'Road Map."
Brownback said he would work early in his term to freeze the state budget, review state business regulations and release a strategic economic development plan. He said tough times still lay ahead.
"It's a difficult time for many Kansas families," he said. "Jeff and I promise you an energetic administration with the government serving the people, not the other way around."
Brownback will officially replace Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson on January 10, 2011.
"We've been waiting for a long time," said Ashley Moretti, president of KU College Republicans and a junior from Wichita. "We're just happy to have a Republican governor that can move away from the Obama agenda."
As many polls predicted, Republicans reclaimed a majority in the House of Representatives. As of 2 a.m., they had picked up 58 seats in the election, 19 more than the 39-seats threshold needed to take back the House.
Hundreds of Republican supporters eagerly awaited the official election results inside the Sunflower Room at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka. Seven members of KU College Republicans, who made the 30-minute drive from Lawrence to attend the watch party, said they were excited when the results were finally announced.
"I just think that this is a statement," said Katelyn Derus, a sophomore from Elm Grove, Wis and a member of the KU College Republicans. "Two years ago, no one would see this happen."
"Kansas is an naturally Republican state," said Bill Lacy, director of the
Dole Institute of Politics. "Couple that then with the fact that there's a huge Republican trend nationally and Kansas doesn't really become unique."
- Edited by Dana Meredith
ELECTION
Republican Kobach defeats incumbent
TOPEKA, Kan. — A professor who helped write Arizona's new immigration law has been elected Kansas secretary of state.
Republican Kris Kobach defeated Democratic incumbent Chris Biggs in Tuesday's election.
Kobach had made combatting election fraud his major issue. He advocates requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. The secretary of state is Kansas' top elections official.
But some voters supported Kobach because as a law professor, he's advised cities and states, including Arizona, about cracking down on illegal immigration.
Biggs was appointed secretary of state in March to fill a vacancy.
Voters amended the Kansas Constitution on Tuesday to remove language allowing the Legislature to prohibit voting by people with mental illness.
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Legislature no longer has the
Associated Press
Protection for voters with mental illness
authority to deny voting rights to the mentally ill.