Low student voter turnout in midterm election mirrors statewide trend

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, about 20 people had voted in Hedrick Hall Fireside Lounge at a polling booth manned by 10 poll workers.

“Five of those votes came from us,” said James Cevallos, a second-year neuroscience student and inspector at the voting booth at Hedrick Hall Fireside Lounge.

A building away, several students walking by Rieber Hall Fireside Lounge said they didn’t even know there was a midterm election Tuesday.

For many other polling places across Westwood, a few dozen people at most had voted in each by afternoon, although the number did grow by evening. By the end of the day, about 100 to 200 people had voted in each, poll workers said.

The Field Poll, which conducts statewide polls in California, predicted that only about 46 percent of registered California voters would vote in the election. Experts said the lack of competitive statewide races and presidential candidates on the ballot led to the low turnout.

In the primary election, only 25 percent of registered voters cast their ballot, the lowest in history.

“Voter turnout here is pretty sad if you think about how much the county pays for this,” Cevallos said.

Cevallos said he is getting $125 from Los Angeles County for supervising clerks throughout the day. Clerks, who guide voters through the process and count the ballots, get paid about $80, he said.

Angela James, a second-year biology and philosophy student who worked as a clerk in Rieber Hall Fireside Lounge, said she was frustrated that people were not voting and that they can make an informed decision with just a little research.

“People want to complain about the government, but (voting) is how you make change,” James said.

Some students said they wanted to vote, but couldn’t or wouldn’t for different reasons.

Nasri Shahin, a second-year business economics student, said he felt skeptical about how much power a vote has.

“When you’re voting, it only goes so far as the one vote you put in,” Shahin said. “The way your voice is really heard is getting involved in politics.”

Diana Pham-Tran, a first-year business economics student and a poll worker at the Rieber Hall lounge, said she saw many people who did not write down correct mailing addresses when they registered to vote, which hindered their ability to vote.

Tran said UCLA instructed on-campus residents to register at the official mailing address, 330 De Neve Drive, but students who registered with this address were put in a precinct away from the Hill. To vote in the correct precinct where they were registered, students had to go to polling stations on Landfair Avenue, Tran said.

This limited the voting abilities of dozens of students who went to Rieber Hall Fireside Lounge to cast their ballots. The students were considered provisional voters, meaning their votes on local precinct issues such as a new sheriff or judge would not be counted, though their votes in county and statewide races would be.

Hannah Hoersting, a graduate student in library and information science who worked as a clerk at the booth in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity building, said she saw a student from San Francisco vote as a provisional voter.

“My understanding was that if a person was registered to vote anywhere in California, it’s our responsibility to make sure they can vote,” she said.

According to the California Secretary of State’s website, voters who registered in other counties are not allowed to cast a vote in Los Angeles County. Provisional ballots will be checked to see if they are cast in a correct manner, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

As the day went on, however, poll workers said they saw more people than they expected.

At a booth in the Alpha Delta Omega fraternity building, about 200 people voted at the end of the day. At the Lambda Chi Alpha building, more than 300 people voted, a poll worker said.

People who did vote expressed their enthusiasm about the election.

“As a woman and an African American, many people fought and died for this right,” said Kya Williamson, a first-year art and African American studies student. “It is disrespectful to them if we don’t vote.”

David Quintero, a second-year biochemistry student who voted at the Rieber Hall lounge, said he was a first-time voter who registered on Bruin Walk. He said he voted to make his voice heard.

“If you don’t vote, older people are always going to keep the power and you’ll wonder why things aren’t moving forward,” he said.

Contributing reports by Rafael Sands, Emily Liu and Rebecca DeShetler, Bruin reporters.