It’s that time of year again! Check your calendar, planner, and city clerk’s webpage because odds are you inadvertently forgot about one of the most influential times of the year: municipal elections! And before you scoff and hide away into the deep crevices of low voter turnout, hear me out: these may not be the sexiest elections, but they are the most influential. For those of you who’ve been avoiding political matters like your looming biology midterm, the municipal elections are the reason patriotic signs are back in yards, names are stretched across banners on the highway, and canvassers have been knocking at doors to tell you about candidates who are truly working to make a change in your community. Municipal elections include city council, municipal wards, and mayoral office elections, which typically go unnoticed by the vast majority of voters, especially Millennial voters.
According to Brookings Institute, even though Millennials and Gen. X voters now make up a greater voting block than the Baby Boomer Generation, Millennials have maintained one of the lowest voter turnout rates at no greater than 50% for the past four presidential elections. One of the reasons that our grandparents tend to decide local politics for us is due to the fact that most millennials aren’t registered to vote where they live due to renting and moving around to find the best jobs and degrees. In a study from Portland State University analyzing big-city mayoral elections, fewer than 1 in 10 registered voters ages 18 to 34 showed up to vote.
If every resident student at the University voted in their municipal election, the collegiate power from the University of Utah alone would be enough to cause drastic change in our communities. Beyond just filing potholes and kissing babies, municipal candidates help regulate neighborhood housing taxes, improve school boards, clean and manage local recreation, among a variety of other duties. And while the media wonders why millennials typically avoid their local elections, a recent study has found that a millennial’s greatest obstacle to vote is the information about the elections and candidates themselves. Most millennials state that they don’t “have enough information about the candidates”, “don’t know enough about local issues”, and that there isn’t enough coverage of the elections to gain interest.
For local students preoccupied with school, it’s easy to not hear the news about the election going on back home or the community politics around your apartment. But have no fear, we will help direct you through the fog of local engagement! But if you’re an out-of-state student, you may be thinking, “What do municipal elections even mean for me?” Well, if you’re seeking that cheaper in-state tuition price by declaring residency, registering to vote and participating in the election gets you one step closer to less years of student loans. Need an easy way to save $20,000? Spend your next study break registering to vote instead of stalking your ex on insta. Trust me, it’s worth it.
So for the students who are preoccupied with school, work, and the day to day of collegiate life we at HerCampus have compiled the 2017 HerCampus Voter Guide to aid our growing collegiate population find the candidates who are targeting the issues that matter the most to us.
- Education – access to high quality secondary education, affordability, preparation for careers. Within this, making sure that collegiate are living in areas that breed success: environments with clean air, renewable energy, access to the environment, and low cost of living.
- Womxn’s empowerment – active policy implementation to improve the lives of socioeconomically disadvantaged womxn, increasing the female representation in all offices of government, and emboldening womxn with the education and legislation to make decisions about their lives and their bodies.
- Inclusivity – this generation of collegiate womxn includes more diversity and intersectionality than any generation recognized before us, and therefore, we must strive to listen to one another’s experiences and implement policy that serves the entire community rather than one subsection of the population.
The 2017 HerCampus Voter Guide:
City Council Candidates
-
Amy Fowler
Salt Lake City Council District 7 – Sugarhouse
- Tinesha Zandamela
Provo City Council District 5 – Provo City
- Chris Wharton
Salt Lake City Council District 3 – Capitol Hill and Greater Avenues
http://www.votechriswharton.com/about-chris
- Erin Mendenhall
Salt Lake City Council District 5 – Liberty Park
http://www.slccouncil.com/districts/district-5/
- Tali Bruce
Cottonwood Heights City Council District 3
- Aaron Frost
South Salt Lake City Council at Large
https://www.facebook.com/aaronfrostsslcc/
- Corey Thomas
South Salt Lake City Council District 2
http://www.coreyforcitycouncil.com/
- Adam Thompson
South Salt Lake City Council District 3
https://www.facebook.com/AdamForCityCouncil2017/
Mayoral Candidates
- Sophia Hawes-Tingey
Mayor of Midvale City
- Cherie Wood
Mayor of South Salt Lake
We encourage you to look through the individual candidates’ pages, get to know their platforms, and of course, VOTE! Given the high amount of female candidates and intersectional perspectives, it’s important now more than ever that these voices (and our voices!) are heard! Feel free to call the candidates, collect a feeling for who they are and what they will do for you. Civic engagement isn’t a “wait until the presidential elections to actually care” lifestyle, civic engagement is active participation in all elections and issues to truly become the well-rounded, educated citizens our democracy longs for. Activate your engagement, register to vote, and have your voice heard in the offices closest to you!
