February 22nd. Election Day in Chicago.After a long and sometimes surprising campaign season, Chicago cast its vote to elect not only the mayor, but city clerk and aldermen as well.
It seemed, though, that many thought the elections were over before they began, and it showed in the final polling numbers: less than 50 percent of registered Chicagoans actually voted.
Despite this, there were still some surprises. The aldermanic race for the 43rd ward continues, with Tim Egan and Michele Smith forcing a runoff, which will take place April 5.
Mayoral candidate Miguel De Valle, despite running one of the smallest campaigns, took in a surprising 9.5 percent of the vote. Even so, the larger news was still something of an inevitability: Rahm Emanuel won the mayoral race with nearly 56 percent of the vote.
At DePaul, Student Affairs provided a last-minute reminder to students to vote, in the form of a “Get Out the Vote” party at the Student Center on Monday the 21st, the day before the election.
Student response to the event itself was positive, but reactions to questions whether or not they would vote were varied. “We got a variety of responses,” said Jaclyn Tracy, EVP of Student Affairs, in an email. “Neutral, to confused, to extremely excited about the election.”
On voting day, student responses seemed to fall into a similar range. Many students interviewed were not registered to vote in Chicago, but were following the mayoral election. Many, like junior William Savoie, said they would probably vote for Rahm Emanuel if they were registered, but some disagreed. Malik Assi, a sophomore from the suburbs said he would vote for, “anyone but Rahm.I don’t like his foreign policy.”
Responses from students who could vote in Chicago were also varied. DePaul senior Smokey Priebe voted for not just a mayoral candidate, but for her alderman and for the Chicago City Clerk as well. She voted for Susana Mendoza for City Clerk, and Gery Chico for mayor. “I’m a firefighter,” Priebe said. In her opinion, Chico “cares more for city workers. he(Chico) supports all the people who make the city run, but who don’t get the credit.”
DePaul senior Christian Roman disagreed. “I don’t see how Chico can fix anything,” he said. He felt that Chico’s promise to help the Chicago Public Schools was hypocritical, considering Chico had opportunities to help before, as Chief of Staff and board President of Chicago Public Schools. “When you’re in charge of hiring, you’re in charge of schools. He’s had two opportunities. He (Chico) didn’t take a stand for anybody.” Roman voted for Rahm Emanuel.
Still other students did not vote at all. “I don’t follow politics,” said Lola Sanamyants, a freshman. “I hate politics!”
Though there seemed to be plenty of response in terms of the mayoral election, with very few exceptions most students did not seem at all to be in tune-or even aware of-the aldermanic and other elections. Though the municipal polling station for precinct 21 was at the Sullivan Athletic Center, on the Lincoln Park campus, only six students came in during the entire day to vote, and only 249 people voted at that location in total.
Graduate student Kristen Aguirre was at the Sullivan Center polling station for some time, and wondered if maybe the students who did not vote, or did not seem interested, felt that they would simply not be heard.
“Those students who came in really educated themselves on the issues,” she said, but also noted that the election “was not really directed toward our generation.” Perhaps, she suggested, more activity on college campuses, such as forums or debates, would have helped. “There were debates,” she explained, “but those weren’t our voices asking the questions.