By Bibeka Shrestha

Approximately 50 percent of registered Rockbridge County voters go to the polls during state and local elections, according to the county’s general registrar. The number of voters who participate in presidential elections is slightly higher at about 70 percent, the registrar said.

“We always wish it’d be better,” Arlene Garrett, Buena Vista’s general registrar, said. “[Citizens are] letting a small number speak for the majority.”

“We’d like everyone to vote, but you can’t make them,” Marilyn Earlheart, Rockbridge County's registrar said. “It’s probably indifference more than anything else.” There are 17 precincts in Rockbridge County alone, so there is one close to every voter, she said.

Jo Ellen Parent, the manager of Healthy Foods Co-op in Lexington, agreed with Earlheart. She said citizens are “too busy, don’t care, don’t think it’ll make a difference.” Parent votes in general elections, but said she is too busy to vote in primaries.

The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., so voters should have plenty of time to vote, Garrett said.

Casey Williams, a young hairstylist at the Cutting Edge salon in Lexington, said people in their early twenties don’t vote because they don’t think political issues affect them and because they usually don't have children.
Buena Vista, Lexington and Rockbridge County’s registrars still try persistently to get more people to register and vote in every election.

The registrars post newspaper ads notifying people of registration deadlines and make annual trips to local high schools to grab newly eligible voters as they turn 18. To remind registered citizens to vote, the Lexington registrar also puts up banners on Lexington’s Main Street.

The News-Gazette also publishes a sample ballot so citizens know what to expect on election day.

Washington and Lee University helped register new voters by holding a voter drive in October. The school submitted 92 registration applications to the Lexington registrar, but the registration process was still far from smooth.

Carol Rendleman, general registrar for Lexington, said the applications were mailed to the registrar in Blacksburg instead of Lexington, and the Lexington registrar received the applications only thirty minutes before the deadline. “It was a little bit of a rush,” Rendleman said.

Garrett believes there should be more alternative methods to entice citizens to vote. She said instead of bombarding citizens with campaign ads around election time, politicians should spend some campaign money to encourage citizens to register and vote throughout the year. “It would be so much better if politics were talked about all the time instead of just during election time,” Garrett said.

More political education and attention to issues people relate to would help pull voters to the polls, Parent said.

Williams, however, believes none of these efforts would not make a significant difference. “You either vote or you don’t,” she said. “Either you’re into it or you’re not.”
 

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd