A high profile congressional race and a highly controversial initiative were not enough to get Utah voters to the polls Tuesday Nov. 5.

Despite a number of polling locations starting out busy early Tuesday, overall turnout for this election was low.

"The roughest numbers we have are about 45 percent voter turnout, but we have many provincial and absentee ballots still to count," said Olene S. Walker, Utah's Lieutenant Governor.

The total number of voters should increase to about 48 percent when all votes are in, Walker said.

The lack of national races, the redistricting of Utah and voter apathy are all being blamed for low turnout.

"I think the big problem was that they weren't voting for the president, governor, or senator," Walker said. "Usually the races that bring people out were not on the ballot."

Congressional and legislative candidates, school board positions, six constitutional amendments and initiative 1 were on the ballot.

Utah recently underwent a redistricting and the new boundaries left many people confused about where to vote, said Candace Ashby, Utah colleges exit poll coordinator and BYU student.

"We were at a few precincts where people came in and they were in the wrong district," Ashby said. "They were confused about who their candidate was."

Voter apathy is a problem in Utah and was a factor in this election because people did not see these races as important, said Walker.

Some BYU students agree that people are not involved enough in important political decisions.

"I have never been to an election where I have been impressed with voter turnout, especially in Utah," said Nathan Boyack, president of College Democrats of BYU. "It is a nationwide problem."

People do not see it as a privilege to vote for their leaders, Boyack said.

Other factors also seemed to influence turnout, Ashby said.

"In seemed like in different areas there were higher turnouts than others," Ashby said. "In areas dominated by older people, they had higher turnout. Older people are more likely to a more politically involved than younger people."

Elementary schools that hosted polls had was a low turnout because younger families who might not be as involved were probably the ones voting there, Ashby said.

The last time voter turnout was this low was four years ago. In 1998, Utah had its lowest voter turnout in history with only 45 percent of Utahns voting in the election.

The lieutenant governors office is discouraged with the low turnout in recent years and hopes that people will get more involved with things that affect the state, Walker said.
Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Nov 2002