On-campus voting for primaries

April 29th, 2010 | By Armando Montaño | Section: News

Unlike the commotion during last fall’s generals elections, satellite voting for Iowa primaries might not garner the enthusiasm and hype.

Voters will have an opportunity to nominate candidates for Iowa state elections in the primaries on Tuesday from 8 a.m to 4 p.m.

“Primaries are different because they’re about inner party politics,” said Elisabeth Rennick ’11, a co-leader of the Grinnell College Campus Democrats. “You’re not electing someone to represent you, but you’re electing someone to potentially represent you.”

The state primaries allow voters registered in Iowa to nominate candidates to run in the 2010 midterm elections in the fall. Registered Democrats can vote for Roxanne Conlin, Tom Fiegen, or Bob Krause to run against Republican Chuck Grassley for the Senate.

The Iowa senator race is the only contested race that registered democrats can vote in. Republicans can vote for 15 different candidates in four different elections including governor, House of Representatives, secretary of state, and treasury.

President of Grinnell College Young Republicans Francisco Reveriano ’13 thinks that Republican turnout in this election is important,

“My only hope is that students vote in the primaries,” Reveriano said. “They can choose candidates that discuss issues that affect us in the future.”

In the elections last fall, there were 1,056 absentee votes for Obama and 115 for John McCain, according to Poweshiwek County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, Diana Dawley. Many of the Obama votes were from Grinnell students since (Satellite votes are counted as absentee), according to Dawley, who expects fewer students to vote in this primary.

Rennick remains optimistic about Tuesday’s turnout.

“I don’t know. It could go either way,” she said about the number of student voters. “The important part is to give students the opportunity to participate in politics.”