Athens, Ohio - Student vote dropped radically from 2008 to 2010

[theHandpuppet]

If this is indicative of student voter turnout across the country there were some close races that could have swung into the Dem column had younger voters cast their ballots. I'm interested in any other reports from campuses around the country, preferably with statistics.

Student vote dropped radically from 2008 to 2010
By Jim Phillips

When Barack Obama won the presidency, voters in reliably Democratic Athens County, including Ohio University students, came to the polls in - well, maybe not droves, but respectably large numbers.
The county notched a turnout of over 64 percent in the 2008 election, while the most heavily student precincts in the city of Athens mostly showed percentages in the 50s.

Last Tuesday's midterms, in which Democrats suffered a state- and nationwide shellacking, were a different story. Athens County's turnout was a measly 33.5 percent of registered voters - the worst of any Ohio county - while in the city of Athens' most student-heavy precincts, turnout was mostly in single digits. Turnout statewide was close to 48 percent.

The standard disclaimer in talking about Athens' student precincts applies here - namely, that in terms of sheer numbers of student residents, many, perhaps most, of the city's 24 precincts would qualify as such. But the nine precincts in Athens with the lowest percentage turnouts Nov. 2 were all among those with the largest proportion of students....

Link: http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-32552-student-vote-dropped-radically-from-2008-to-2010.html

[theHandpuppet]

1. Dupe -- mods please delete or lock

I was having server problems and my thread got posted more than once.