It’s an off off year.
There are 2098 registered voters in the reconfigured Venable precinct. One-hundred and thirty-one of them showed to vote.
Visiting the polling place was like visiting a museum after hours.
If we had a referendum on the legality of party-porches, open containers and free BMW’s, traffic would pick up.
The University of Virginia makes little effort to house its students. And so, you end up with a precinct of students that don’t vote and a neighborhood that has largely abandoned civic participation.
– Virginia State Board of Elections unofficial results
2011/11/09
unengaged
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I am the guy in the picture looking over the electronic poll books, I can say that we lost a lot of interest since the election featured mostly local races which most college students aren’t really feeling involved in the locale where they are living. That seemed to be proven by the lack of participation in this election which you photographed here, the funny thing is this local election is one where their vote is one that would have a greater impact upon their lives since they are and will be living here in this city, not where their parents live or where they came from before going to school here. Good sense isn’t shown by this lack of interest and it is pervasive and has been somewhat this way for my entire time as a poll official. What it would take to change this I don’t know, perhaps if the city candidates would show up on campus and meet with students to find out what their issues and living issues are might help. But I am retiring from this service now but it’s nice to have an opportunity to voice my observations about my time as an election official at the Venable prescient.
Comment by john trippel — 2011/11/22 @ 20:44