Salt Lake candidates vie for student vote

With elections around the corner, Salt Lake City's more than 50,000 college students may have enough power to swing the vote — however, many students don't take the time to cast a ballot.

Candidates have been active throughout the city, including University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College, because "a vote is a vote," said Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Dave Buhler.

"U. students could definitely swing the vote," said Bryson Morgan, a political science student who estimates that about 60 percent of the University of Utah's campus population is registered to vote but not all within Salt Lake City limits.

"We felt there's been a lot of excitement on campus about the mayor's race, about the voucher issue — a lot of passion about the voucher issue and a lot of excitement already about the upcoming 2008 election," Morgan said. He said both candidates for Salt Lake City mayor, Buhler and Ralph Becker, have been participating in events at the U., as well as recruiting students to help on their campaigns.

"Ralph feels pretty connected to the university community and feels pretty tied into the students' needs and their particular perspective," said David Everitt, campaign manager for Becker. He said students come with a different set of issues that are important to them.

Buhler, said that "if students care about the future of the city — downtown for example, and how that's going to turn out — they should get involved and vote."

A straw poll organized by the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the U. shows that Becker is a favorite among students there, getting 45 percent of the 1,768 votes cast. Buhler was not far behind, capturing 42 percent of the vote. Referendum 1 was not favored, getting only 30 percent in favor of the idea, and the favorite presidential candidate was Mitt Romney, who got nearly 31 percent of the student vote. Barack Obama wasn't far behind, with 28 percent of the total votes cast.

Getting students out to vote may be the trickiest part, Morgan said.

"Young people are starting to realize that politics and government really affects their lives," Morgan said. "As students start thinking about getting married, buying homes, getting jobs, they start to realize government can have a huge impact on their lives." The issues he says are of most importance to students at the U. include the environment, transportation and energy conservation.