Student Votes

A new list went up last week on the bulletin board at the Broadway Street fire station, the main voting precinct for students. The list is a special supplement to the master list of registered voters, and it contains the names of over 500 students who have registered to vote in tomorrow's election.

David Sullivan, a council candidate, who has been canvassing almost every Harvard and MIT dormitory, says he feels that students this year are morally interested in voting in the election. "They're not that interested in city issues, but I have been getting very good responses because people seem to think it's important to vote," Sullivan says.

Observers estimate the student vote will comprise about four per cent of all votes cast and the figures reveal that, perhaps, more than 15 per cent of the student body is registered, making a total of about 2000 votes.

Last year's presidential election, no doubt, has influenced the rise in student registered votes, indicated by a 95 per cent turnout of Harvard and MIT student voters. But the largest increase came this September when the Cambridge Election Commission set up tables at Harvard and MIT registrations to enroll student voters.

It is unlikely that more than 50 per cent of the students registered in Cambridge will turn out to vote, as was the case two years ago. Students are notorious for taking only a passing interest in city politics, and to compound the problem, many city politicians fear that if students did turn out in droves on election day, the city would be over-run by the university populations.

Cambridge Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, who is running for re-election this year, however, has no qualms about the student vote. "Students like Mayor Vellucci, and that's why I'm going after their votes," he says, adding he believes they can have a major effect tomorrow and for the next two years.