Survey: most UA students are not planning to vote in city elections


Paul Bastedo undecided freshman "I think the water issue is interesting. I'm from New Jersey so I donāt know what the big deal is ÷ I've never heard so much talk about water."	Darby Renneckar microbiology soph. "I'll probably call my mom and ask her what she's voting for. I'm not going to vote for the CAP/groundwater combination, it just seems like bad water."	Megan Laubach music education soph. "Proposition 200 I think is the big deal right now. I think they need to use CAP because we're going to run out of groundwater. I think they have pretty much fixed all the problems with CAP."	Rafael Garcia agriculture and biosystems engineering graduate student "I'm going to vote no (on Prop. 200). I guess because a lot of the arguments against it are bull ... They say it's great water but they're wrong."

After months of being bombarded with propositions and mayoral campaigns, election day has finally arrived.

Out of 50 students questioned in an informal Arizona Daily Wildcat survey yesterday, only 24 percent planned to vote in the city elections today.

"I know nothing about what's going on. I'd vote if I knew what was going on," said Andrew Shemin, creative writing sophomore. "I gave up on newspapers because all they care about is death. I feel pretty well removed from politics."

Julie Salamon, undeclared sophomore, said she is interested in the political issues but she didn't have enough time to research the election items in order to make an educated vote.

"Yeah, I care," Salamon said. "I've just been so busy with schoolwork to research and find out what's going on in politics."

Though the majority of students surveyed weren't planning on voting, most cared about the issues - especially Proposition 200, which would stop residential delivery of Central Arizona Project water in Tucson.

"Proposition 200 I think is the big deal right now," said Megan Laubach, a music education sophomore. "I think they need to use CAP because we're going to run out of ground water. I think they have pretty much fixed all the problems with CAP."

Rafael Garcia, an agriculture and biosystems engineering graduate student, had strong feelings against Proposition 200.

"I'm going to vote no (on Proposition 200). I guess because a lot of the arguments against it are bull ..." Garcia said. "They say if you pump (water) down and right back up, they say it's great water but they're wrong."

The candidates for mayor are Libertarian Ed Kahn, Democrat Molly McKasson and Republican Bob Walkup.

As for the mayoral race, 42 percent - a majority of the students who plan on voting - will choose Walkup.

Edward Diaz, an architecture junior, had his own opinion on how the election will turn out.