Even as some states are still waiting to hold their primaries, public interest in the presidential campaign is almost non-existent, a trend some ISU political experts say will continue for a while and may end up decreasing voter turnout in November.

“Basically, this is a period of political disinterest. There are still many primaries going on that nobody’s paying attention to,” said Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science.

Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, said the lack of interest is caused by the decreasing importance of the summer’s national party conventions.

“In earlier presidential races, there was a suspense surrounding the national convention, but now it’s a public-relations event where candidates get up and give scripted speeches,” Bystrom said.

Schmidt said although it is difficult to get people to pay attention to politics now, it will be even worse during the summer.

“People are like college students; in the summer, they want to lie back and do other things. Then when summer [is over], they get interested again,” he said. “I predict that on Aug. 21, people will start paying more attention.”

Schmidt said during this period of political nonchalance, candidates often try to subtlety jockey for voters from the other candidate’s party.

“[Vice President Al] Gore came out saying he was in favor of Elian [Gonzalez] being returned to his father, and this may be to try to gain more conservative and moderate votes,” he said. “[Texas Gov. George W.] Bush the other day came out with a new education plan, but that was not what conservatives wanted.”

Bystrom said she does not think the long period of political inactivity will hurt the voter turnout in the general election in November, as many political pundits have predicted.

“This campaign looks like it will be a close race, and that will spark interest. People can now use this time to look at the issues and decide who they will vote for,” she said.

Mack Shelley, professor of political science and statistics, said, however, the fact that national polls have Gore and Bush locked in a dead heat will do nothing to increase voter turnout.

“I think that even if it is close, it will not have much of an effect. I think voters would only turn out for a contender if it would help themselves but not just because it is a close race,” Shelley said.

He said it’s hard to tell right now, but considering recent elections and barring any major national crises, he predicted a turnout lower than 50 percent.

“Voter turnout has been on a downward spiral for seven decades now,” he said.

Shelley also said he predicts a low turnout because of the political apathy of most of the nation’s youth.

“I teach an American government class right now, and many of the students in my class I would consider as apolitical,” he said. “From their papers, many of them have expressed a disinterest and a distrust in government. They don’t look at voting and being active in politics as a civic duty like previous generations.”