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BERKELEY--While Berkeley students regularly raise their voices on issues ranging from policy in the Middle East to affirmative action to the environment, surprisingly few students take their politics to the polls.
In the area around campus, only about 40% of eligible voters voted in 2000. And while a successful campus drive registered 4,500 students this fall, there is no guarantee that they will cast their vote on Election Day.
Apathy, a feeling of disenfranchisement, a transient status, and disconnection with their community are all cited as reasons for low student voter turn out.
"It's a catch-22," says Bret Manley, president of Berkeley College Republicans. "Students don't vote because politicians don't address our issues, but politicians don't address our issues because we don't vote."
Kriss Worthington, who represents District 7 on the Berkeley City Council, agrees, and says they are not unlike under-represented minorities, "when you leave people out they sort of wonder, 'they're not doing anything for me or about the issues I care about so why should I be involved, why should I care?'"
Thomas De Simone, president of the Cal Democrats, says there are plenty of issues students should be concerned about. "From tuition fees, to affordable housing; from public safety, to the environment, most issues directly affect students," he said.
Last year, in an effort to create a student-dominated district, and thus win a student-held seat on the City Council, campus leaders fought to get district boundaries redrawn. With direct representation in the Council, ASUC and other groups argued, more students would show up on Election Day.
The students lost that battle however, due in part to progressives on the Council, including Worthington, who opposed the redistricting plan. Student groups have now trained their efforts on getting students to vote. The more students that vote, the groups hope, the more the Council will pay attention to student issues.
Both Republican and Democrat student groups as well as the ASUC and Graduate Assembly registered voters. But De Simone acknowledged that no one has the key to getting students out on Election Day.
ASUC external affairs vice president Jimmy Bryant, who is working on a get out the vote campaign on campus, says students have a different connection to Berkeley than other voters. "Voting places are in the community: churches, fire houses and schools. Students move into communities, but are not familiar with them. Their communities are on campus."
This year, with five residence halls being used as polling places compared to how many in 2000, students can roll out of bed and walk downstairs in their pajamas to vote.
"Wherever there's a large complex with a lot of people," says Worthington, "we should use those addresses as voting places so the largest number of people get to walk the shortest distance and increase voter participation."
This theory however may not hold true at Berkeley.
"I'm not into the whole voting thing," said Miguel Renya, 19, who is unregistered and lives in a residence hall that will serve as a polling place.
May Chan, a second year, has registered, but, Chan lets her father fill out her absentee ballot in San Francisco. "I don't know who to vote for," she said, smiling as she shrugged her shoulders. "So I may as well give [the ballot] to him."
Reading the Oakland Tribune outside a university dining hall, Clint Tanaka, who is not registered, epitomized apathy. When asked why he didn't register to vote, Tanaka replied, "I just didn't."
Others, however, felt more inclined to vote. "I feel like by [voting], it validates other opinions I have -- rather than spouting off, I am a participant," said Tawny Dovico, a fifth year. "It's not empty talking, its civic responsibility."
"[Its] my duty to democracy," explained first year Douglas Newby, who is voting on Tuesday for the first time.
Some student Republicans said they would prefer to vote in their hometown. Even though Manley is voting in Berkeley, he says that almost all student Republicans he knows vote absentee because they don't think that their vote will matter in such a liberal stronghold.
Regardless of politics, campus groups see the importance getting out the vote. "The higher the student vote, the more the legislature pays attention," says Bryant.
So for now he and his colleagues at the ASUC will continue to fight an uphill battle against apathy. In the remaining days before November 5, they will pass out voter information guides and reach out to students one on one trying to bring other students to the polls.