The new generation of voters repeatedly is called apathetic for not participating in the democratic process, and statistics show the trend is true.

From national elections to Iowa State’s recent student body government elections, voter turnout rates are extremely low for 18 to 24-year-olds.

In the March 8-10 Government of the Student Body elections, 1,480 students voted — about 6 percent of the eligible populace.

Sixteen percent of Iowans aged 18 to 24 voted in the midterm elections in November, which featured a tight gubernatorial race between Jim Lightfoot and Tom Vilsack, according to statistics released by Secretary of State Chet Culver’s office.

Students cite many reasons why young voters ignore the ballot booths.

Joel Werling, sophomore in agricultural systems technology, said he feels the government doesn’t affect him enough to put in the time to vote.

“To be honest, I don’t remember if I voted last November because I don’t care,” Werling said. “I just never really look towards the government for help, so it doesn’t matter to me.”

Werling said he also did not vote in the GSB elections.

David Douglas, sophomore in computer engineering, said although he votes in every election possible, he can understand why others would not.

“If we don’t vote, democracy falls apart,” he said. “But most students like to reel in pure apathy. They don’t feel the process reflects on them, so they just don’t vote.”

Chris Dennison, senior in electrical engineering, said although he votes in national and state elections, he tends to avoid the student government elections.

“I didn’t plan to vote in the GSB elections because I didn’t even know where the voting places were at,” Dennison said.

“I vote regularly in state and federal elections. I just don’t get riled up about university politics,” he said.

In an attempt to fight student apathy, government officials at both local and state levels are doing what they can to increase the voter turnout.

Story County Auditor Judy Emmons recently instituted a new program to get 18-year-olds in the county to vote.

After attending a meeting of county auditors, Emmons got an idea from Hamilton County Auditor Mary Schultz to send birthday cards to eligible voters on their 18th birthdays. The black and red cards contained voter registration forms.

“I’ve been trying to find ways to get the younger voters to vote,” Emmons said.

“It seems like young people don’t take an interest anymore, and by the time you get older you haven’t been though the experience,” she said.

Emmons said she feels the lack of civil involvement from youth hurts everyone.

“If more young people got involved, society would be better as a whole,” she said. “We would really be better off if we could get input from young voters.”

Emmons said reaction to the cards was positive, and many people she spoke to felt the cards left an impression that the auditor’s office was trying to pay attention to young voters.

Of the 985 cards sent out from December 1997 to January 1999, 23 percent of the registration forms were returned. Of the 23 percent of 18-year-olds who returned cards, 97 percent voted in the most recent elections.

Emmons said she was very happy with the success of the program and plans to continue it in the future.

At the state level, Culver also is creating a program to get Iowa youth to vote.

According to an article in The Des Moines Register, Culver is starting a non-partisan “Iowa Student Political Awareness Club” for sixth-12th graders.

The aim of the club is to get young voters interested in registering to vote, voting themselves and encouraging their friends to vote. The club also will require members to abstain from illegal drugs and alcohol.

On the ISU campus, student government elections have gained a reputation for having low voter turnouts.

Tracy Harling, election commissioner for the recent GSB elections, said she felt the 6 percent turnout was average.

“We always want more turnout, of course, but it wasn’t too bad,” she said.

Harling said she thought the election commission did plenty to encourage students to vote.

“I thought that we did quite a bit of advertising,” she said. “We had close to 400 posters printed, and we had almost all of them up. We ran good-sized ads in the Daily all week long.”

GSB senators also talked to their constituency groups and told them how and where to vote, she said.

Harling said she feels turnouts are historically low for student government elections because students don’t realize how much money GSB controls.

“I think that a majority of the students don’t realize that their budget is so large and that that money comes from their student fees,” she said.

GSB President-Elect Matt Craft said he plans to increase voter turnout next year.

“One of our main goals is to at least double the turnout from this year,” he said.

Craft said the key to motivating twice as many students to vote will be showing students how much GSB does for them.

“If they don’t think GSB does anything worthwhile, then they have a right to be apathetic,” he said. “Hopefully, next year the students will care enough about GSB to feel they should vote.”