Terrorism. Iraq. Jobs. Taxes. Education. Justice. Marriage. Liberty. Life is short and the issues at stake are too important for any of us to approach next week's elections casually.
Across campus this semester we have been bombarded with voter registration cards, absentee ballots and promptings of ""Vote! Vote! And remember to vote!"" As Tuesday draws near, the amplitude of these urgings will boost to deafening levels. An army of doorknockers and placard placers is poised to pursue every possible student vote from Bradley Hall to Brats and beyond.
Armed with ward maps on clipboards, the get-out-the-vote patrols care about one thing only: turnout. Striving solely to increase the number of campus voters is the wrong way to promote student engagement in the political process.
While voter turnout is certainly an important measure of civic participation, voters who have not taken the time to examine the issues and evaluate the candidates just aren't worth the effort.
When interviewed about the student vote by a local news broadcast earlier this month, I cringed to hear myself imply that voting in and of itself is more important than how one votes. I could never have been more wrong, and I regret making such a suggestion.
Let me now be clear: For whom and how you vote is most significant to the maintenance of democracy. Moreover, operations that focus solely on voter registration and turnout are fundamentally misguided.
Sure, informing a student about voting procedure is important, but these acts are merely first steps toward meaningful engagement in politics and governance.
For example, WISPIRG's New Voters Project—funded in part by our segregated student fee dollars—has registered thousands of voters this fall and next Tuesday they will employ any means necessary to convert student registrations into student votes.
In a recent letter to the editor, a New Voters Project member claimed, ""politicians will continue to ignore [student] issues unless we show up at the polls in numbers that make them take notice."" Wrong.
Candidates for public office across Wisconsin already recognize the consequence of the student voter.
Both candidates for governor continue to debate the rising cost of tuition and access to higher education in this state. Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and her challenger Jean Hundertmark have spent time on campus. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and her opponent Dave Magnum each hosted several listening sessions this semester and twice debated before student audiences. Even Green Party candidate for governor Nelson Eisman has attempted to woo student voters recently.
Regardless of the notice this campus has been given by the candidates, I am fearful many of us know nothing more about them than what we've read on misleading lecture hall fliers and infantile slogans chalked onto the Library Mall sidewalk.
We may be new voters, but we have a responsibility to be educated new voters and in order to make candidates pay attention to us, we need to pay attention to them.
Theodore Roosevelt put it this way: ""A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.""
That said, use your vote wisely next week. Take time to delve a little deeper into the issues confronting our generation and evaluate the candidates on their actual merits rather than what you've heard or read somewhere.
If you are unable or unwilling to fully educate yourself, do the rest of us a favor: stay home on Tuesday. And don't let the voter turnout gang convince you otherwise.
