Students Scarce, Turnout Low at Campus Voting Precincts

Despite two prominent statewide primaries, voter turnout at local precincts was very low yesterday and many precincts were struggling by late afternoon to reach the 20 percent mark.

"There is not much going on here right now," said Peter S. Sheinfeld, vice-chair of the Cambridge. Republican City Committee, who worked at the Gund Hall precinct on Cambridge Street, Harvard Square.

At 3:15 p.m., officials at the Gund Hall precinct reported that 142 out of 1,07 potential voters had cast their ballots. Similar dismal turnouts were reported at two other precincts in the Harvard Square area.

At the main precinct for Harvard students, Quincy House, election officials reported that by mid-afternoon 26 people had cast ballots since the polls opened at 7 a.m.

And at Larsen Hall, the precinct for students living in the Yard, election workers reported that only nine out of 149 possible voters had cast ballots by 3:30 p.m.

Eileen Schaub, who worked at the Larsen Hall precinct, said no registered Republicans had voted there by late afternoon.

"The primaries usually have bad turnout, but never this bad," Schaub said.

Like their fellow Cantabrigians, Harvard students registered to vote in local precincts said they stayed away from the polls because of uninteresting races on this year's ballot.

"I was not aware that there was a primary today," P.J. Malloy '96-'97, a registered Republican, said. "There should be more advertising of these events, I just came back from New Mexico Friday and I have not paid attention at all to the race."

Caroline J. Choi '96, who was registered to vote at Quincy House, said she decided not to vote because none the three Democrats running for governor had piqued her interest in the race.

"They're all fighting with each other, the standard campaigning has not caught my interest," said Choi, who is a registered Democrat.

The cause of the low student turnout was Harvard's mid-September starting date, according to College Democrats President, Jomo A. Thorne '97.

"We just got back too late," said Thorne, who voted yesterday. "We have individual members who are working on campaigns, but nothing as a group."

Election officials said although primaries usually have low turnout, this year's uneventful Democratic race between state Rep. Mark Roosevelt '78, state Sen. Michael J. Barrett '70 and former state Sen. George Bachrach has not attracted voters.

"None of the three Democratic candidates light the fire under anyone," said Sheinfeld. "There are all pretty much the same when you get down to it."

But former Cambridge mayor Alice K. Wolf said the lack of a defining issue in the 1994 campaign is the reason for low student turnout this year.

"My experience is that you have to get into the dorms and drag students out to vote," said Wolf, who campaigned for Bachrach yesterday morning at the Peabody School in Cambridge. "When there's an issue that hits the students, that gets a lot of students voting."