Editorial | Bucking the apathy trend

Penn students fulfilled their civic duty last week in record numbers.

Whether they voted locally in Philadelphia or voted in their home states via absentee ballot, most students voted in last week's midterm election.

A midterm election!

Midterms are known for being unable to inspire a majority of Americans to visit polling places. But political energy was high on campus, and there were even stories of local students renting cars to vote in nearby hometown counties.

The six campus precincts received nearly triple the number of votes that were recorded in the 2002 midterm election, skyrocketing from 509 in the last midterm to 1,521 this year.

Students deserve praise for defying the continual trend of youthful apathy - youth voting increased 4 percent nationally over the 2002 election. Penn students, faculty and groups in particular deserve significant credit for their efforts.

Penn Leads the Vote, a non-partisan organization founded in 2004, worked tremendously hard to get students to the polls. Members gave away T-shirts and spent time on Locust Walk, eventually registering more than 1,500 students to vote. And Political Science professor John DiIulio let his Intro to American Politics students skip class on Election Day so long as they spent the time getting people to the polls.

It's great to see such civic duty on campus, especially for a midterm. But - despite what some students may think - there are many other elections besides those in which a congressman, senator or president are elected.

Philadelphia's mayoral primary in May will have a tremendous effect on the future of this city, and it would be great to see the energy we saw last week carry over to such off-year elections.

Regardless, we hope this newfound interest in voting is here to stay.

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