Apathy?

I consider myself a pretty normal college student. I’m probably more versed on local news than most, though no more versed than any other student writing for the Missourian.

When I chipped in with election coverage this week, I couldn’t help but wonder…I voted in this election, but if I hadn’t been at the paper, I don’t really know if I would have bothered. For a die-hard voter, that’s an uncomfortable thing to admit.

But this election didn’t have a tremendous impact on me, individually, other than offering me a chance to blacken in an oval to indicate an opinion.

After all…I don’t pay taxes yet, so the tax-related ballot items wouldn’t have impacted my life very much. As for sewer rate increases: I’m not going to be here after December, so even if the bonds failed and rates went through the roof, it wouldn’t hit my pocketbook too hard. I think education’s important, but had I not needed to know the candidates before I could interview voters, I would have been relatively uninformed on the school board candidates.

I knew nothing whatsoever about the folks running for hospital trustee.

So, essentially, if it weren’t for being at the Missourian (not just reading the Missourian, but actively being in the newsroom), I don’t know if I would have been comfortable voting, period. I wouldn’t have been informed at all and wouldn’t have really had much stake in any of the election outcomes.

I’d still like to think I’d have done a little research on my own and, come election day, would’ve headed to the polls…but even then, I sincerely doubt I’d have known enough about any of the issues (after all, I’m busy and prone to being oblivious on occasion) to confidently cast an informed ballot.

I’d be interested to know if uninformed college students make up an appreciable chunk of the people voting in municipal elections. My gut tells me that the answer’s probably no, but in tight races, how many times do things get decided by people who come out to vote for a single issue and randomly blacken in the rest of the bubbles? How many times to people got to their precinct so they can vote for, say, their City Council rep, and then choose random school board delegates and blindly vote yes or no on tax issues?

It’s something interesting to mull over, I suppose: can apathy actually make an impact?

Boy, was this a pointless blog.

PROGRESS REPORT:
Spent most of this week helping with captions and coordinating efforts to make sure everything for my Saturday cover story on the jaguar gorget is totally ready to go. I fine-tuned my stuff for web shells and am coordinating a progress report (with help from Paul, of course) to sent to Tom, so he has an idea of where growth stands. Other than that, I’m meeting with Liz today to decide what I’ll be working on the next several weeks so I can finish the semester strong.