Less than a week after President Barack Obama cajoled students to vote on College Green with his “Don’t boo, vote!” slogan, the Athens County Board of Elections has seen only a minor spike in votes.
On Thursday and Friday after Obama spoke, the Athens County Board of Elections recorded 240 in-person votes — almost double the amount from Monday and Tuesday of that week, said Debbie Quivey, director of the Athens County Board of Elections.
“There was definitely a small spike after Obama spoke, but it was nothing too drastic,” she said.
Obama’s visit did prompt some votes, said Shannon Welch, president of Ohio University’s College Democrats.
“I think Obama’s speech did something that will push people who were not really sure if they should vote to go vote,” Welch said. “I’ve talked to a few people who were undecided and then chose to vote for Obama after hearing his speech.”
But Quivey said she saw more student voters during Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Since Oct. 2, the Board of Elections has seen 1,497 in-person absentee votes in Athens as of Monday. Far more had voted by this time in 2008, Quivey said.
“I can tell you that four years ago, we were always busy with student voting up until the end (of the voting period), and it’s not like that this year,” she said.
So far, 5,962 absentee ballots have been requested, and only 3,882 have been returned.
“I was really surprised,” Quivey said. “I thought we were going to get slammed after Obama spoke, but we didn’t.”
Welch said the College Democrats are planning several events in the upcoming weeks to broaden the student vote.
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