Today, I Become a Disillusioned Youth

It's official. Today was election day, and I voted. But barely.

Now I see the vicious cycle in it's entirety: Politicians don't care about students because students don't care about politics. Students don't care about politics because politicians don't care about students.

I was able to register to vote on campus. This is good. Both the Young Republicans and Young Democrats had registration drives. And that's as far as it went. Outside of registration, there were no movements on camus to get students to vote or even concerned about politics. A few facts to consider:

1. Despite claiming a campus of 30,000+ students plus faculty and staff, there is no polling site on campus.
2. There was no organized system to get students to their polling places, despite an enormous campus tranist system. I had to get a ride from an intern at CCF.
3. My polling place was on the completely opposite side of campus from me (and about three miles away from that side of campus, in the middle of nowhere), despite other polling places being closer.
4. Outside of the attack ads on TV, there was no attempt to educate students on issues or candidates.
5. Students registered in other states and precincts were unable (and unwilling) to get through the red tape to get their absentee ballots. Some planned to drive home to vote, but classes got in the way.
   

I know two other people who voted. Only one of them was a student.

On the note of not being educated enough to vote, I almost decided not to vote. Simply because I didn't know anything about any of the candidates running. The one thing that got me to the polls was the tax issue: I wanted to vote for the Special Local Option Sales Tax.

I hope people do a better job in two years when the election matters most.

Rock on.