Low voter turnout on campus this year followed the nationwide trend, said Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten.
“We were hoping we’d be an outlier,” Hulten said.
Just over 46 percent of registered voters showed up to vote at campus precincts, lower than the 49.1 percent campus turnout in 2008. It is also more than 10 percent lower than the 57.5 percent national voter turnout that was estimated by Curtis Gans, director of American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate. A precise count is unavailable due to the millions of ballots that have yet to be counted.
Voter turnout on campus ranged from 38.8 percent at the University YMCA to 65.9 percent at Daniels Graduate Residence Hall.
It was also low compared to the city of Champaign and county-wide percentage of voters, which have both increased since the 2008 election; the percentage of voters who participated in the 2012 election in Champaign County the turnout was 69.3 percent.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“It’s kind of one of those things we have noticed since the beginning of the semester… We didn’t even hit our voter registration numbers that we wanted to hit,” said Shana Harrison, president of Illini Democrats.
Turnout on campus may be low because many students vote in their hometown, said Despina Batson, president of College Republicans.
In the polling precinct area surrounding Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall, turnout decreased from 65.5 percent in 2008, to 49.41 percent this year. Turnout also decreased from 55.1 percent in 2008 to 45.27 percent this year in the polling precinct surrounding Illinois Street Residence Hall. In the area surrounding Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Hall, turnout decreased from 56.9 percent in 2008 to 41.1 percent
While voter turnout did remain low on campus, City of Champaign precincts 2 and 3, where voting took place at the McKinley Presbyterian Church and Foundation, saw an increase this year. The City of Champaign precinct 2 saw a significant increase from 37.6 percent in 2008 to 66.1 percent this year. Turnout in City of Champaign precinct 3 increased from 39.39 percent in 2008 to 53.5 percent this year.
The Associated Press and Daytime Assistant Editors Emily Thornton, Tom Thoren and Hannah Prokop contributed to this article.
