Vote for more than yourself

Residents are flocking to Iowa City's early voting sites like Bavarians to Oktoberfest.

The county auditor says more than 2,500 ballots were cast at satellite locations in the first week of early voting. And while there's no way to know for sure, the safe money is that most of those early ballots were cast by young University of Iowa student types eager to vote their way back into the city's bars.

Opponents of the 21-only ordinance are making sure its easy requesting 17 satellite voting stations on the University of Iowa campus, and others on the Kirkwood Community College campus, the Old Capital Center and at other student-friendly spots.

Thanks to the Yes for Student Safety committee, hundreds of young people who live at the massive Lodge apartment complex can pop over and vote in their pajamas if they want to. They've no excuse not to vote.

And though there's still a month to go before Election Day, its pretty clear that they will: Of the 2,617 ballots cast between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, 2,245 were cast somewhere on the UI campus, according to the auditor. More than 1,300 people cast ballots in just one day of voting at Burge Residence Hall a record. No question, students will have plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard.

That they're using that voice to get back into Iowa City bars doesn't make young voters much different from the single-issue business owner who votes to lower his taxes, or the cost-be-damned social-issues voter, I guess.

We all vote in our own self-interest, which is why political campaigns become such rats nests of conflicting, sometimes impossible, promises.

No wonder some people are turned off by the process.

But since you're at the polls anyway, young voters, this would be a good time to speak your mind about other issues, too.

Like boring choices between candidates for governor, congressman, legislators: the people who make decisions about well, about everything else outside the bars.

At the risk of sounding like I'm telling you to eat your vegetables, Id like to remind you they're important posts. It doesn't take long to look the candidates up online and choose the ones you like.

I'm all for young voters flexing their civic muscles. I'm with Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett.

"Lets all vote, that's what I say," he told me Friday. I agree.

And Johnson County is on track for another record-breaking election. I cant argue that's a bad thing.

But Id feel so much better about it if we were on track to break records for engagement, too.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net