By Journalism II
Some 28,000 students attend college in the city of Albany every year, but the effect, if any, on election results appears to be insignificant. Some 21,038 people between the age of 18 to 24 live in Albany county permanently, but that number doesn’t include the non-resident student population who are old enough to vote.
The transient student populations attend the state University at Albany, The College of Saint Rose, Sage College, Albany Law, Albany Medical, and Albany College of Pharmacy.
While there are 97,856 permanent residents in the city of Albany, that number swells substantially from August to May. Smack in the middle of the school year comes Election Day. But, data does not reflect that the student population translates into voters who are influencing the city’s election results.
Polling places are located on some local campuses and nearby others. Those voting locales draw not just from the student population, but from locally registered voters as well. Registered voters from three city wards and one Guilderland ward cast their ballots at the campus center at the state University. Last Election Day, only 75 voters from all four of those districts showed up to vote.
In the county of Albany, the 18 to 23 -year-old population –the traditional age of college students–accounts for 6 percent of the total voters in the county, said Jason Wright, a computer information specialist at the Albany County Board of Elections. The breakdown on those student-aged voters is: 9 percent are not affiliated with a party, 5 percent are Democrats and 3 percent are Republicans.
It does appear that students at the University are politically active. Two groups with Web site presences, the University at Albany College Republicans and the University at Albany College Democrats, show recent involvement in current campaigns. Students involved with the Republican group recently campaigned for gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, who is running against Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo, according to activity on the group’s Facebook page. The college Democrats hold weekly meetings too, and on their Facebook page, show that they campaigned for Aaron Woolf, who is running for Congress in upstate New York against Elise Stefanik. The young Republicans also reported making 1,000 phone calls on behalf of Stefanik. Neither student group returned requests for comment.
East of the University, at The College of Saint Rose, there are no voting sites on campus, though one was housed there temporarily years ago. Nearby the midtown campus, where thousands of college students from many local schools rent apartments, there are at least three polling places within walking distance: at Albany High School on Washington Avenue, at the Pine Hills Library on Western Avenue, and at St. Vincent’s Center on Madison Avenue. Last year, only 288 voters stopped by at Albany High School; 270 at the library; and 194 at St. Vincent’s Center.
Uptown, at an off-campus polling site near the University where primarily permanent residents vote, a total of 765 voters visited the McKownville Fire Department on Western Avenue.
More than a decade ago, the student population in Saratoga, home of Skidmore College, exercised enough political sway to cause some concern among local residents.
In Saratoga County 142,748 voters are registered, and of those 7 percent are between the ages of 18 to 24, said William Fruci, commissioner of elections, at Saratoga Board of Elections. The student voters are 8 percent of the county’s registered Democrats, 4 percent of registered Republicans, and make up 10 percent of those not affiliated with a party in the county.
In 2001, student voters were 6 percent of the total voters for the 2001 election where only 40 percent of Saratoga Springs residents voted. Student-age voters continue to impact local elections.
The Skidmore College polling place is now only available to registered students, according to Andrea Wise, director of media relations for Skidmore. The campus polling place was used by 600 voters in the 2012 presidential election. A year ago, 100 Skidmore students voted in local
elections.
Researched, reported, and written by: Paige DeSorbo, Alex Horton, Vanessa Langdon and Jessica LePore
