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Printer-Friendly ModeRegistered student voters likely to increase turnout
February 27, 2006 —
The controversial referendum tomorrow on whether or not to rezone 13.98 acres of land on the southwest corner of Pierce and Davis has brought some students into unfamiliar territory - voting on Kochville Township issues.
Kochville Township Clerk George A. Schnepf estimates that roughly 30 new voters, although not all students, have registered to vote in Kochville Township in the past month. Schnepf did not keep track of the number of students registering as a distinct entity within voter rolls.
"For me, there would be no reason to keep track of how many students were registered," Schnepf says. "Of those (registered) that were from SVSU, I have no idea."
A concentrated effort by the organization Kochville First, which opposes the rezoning, to keep students from registering may have paid off. Stephen J. Yanca, professor of social work at SVSU, says that if students change their voter registration and permanent address, it may remove students from their parents' insurance, cause problems with their parents' ability to claim full-time dependents for tax purposes, or make the students ineligible for some forms of federal aid. As a result of this effort, some students may have hesitated in changing their voter registration.
Investor John Leuenberger did his part to sway students to change their registration, as he estimates that $400 was spent on pro-rezoning flyers at SVSU. While he concedes that he did not think to consider the potential issue of parents' tax problems, he says he did make phone calls to several insurance companies around the state to determine whether there would be a problem.
Leuenberger, who runs Jack's Tree Service on Davis Road, says that only one of the companies said there could be a problem.
Schnepf says he is not responsible for registering voters, as new voters register through the Saginaw County Clerk, Susan Kaltenbach, who then forwards the voter roll to Schnepf. Heading into tomorrow's vote, Schnepf says, 1,738 registered, eligible voters were on the Township list.
The chance to vote tomorrow was in jeopardy for several students. A glitch in the voter registration system in Lansing led to a problem for some students who listed Bay Road as their address. A Bay Road also exists in Bangor Township, a few miles to the north in Bay County, and the voter registration cards were accidentally sent to Bangor instead of Kochville Township.
"The street index indicated that there was a Bay Road up there as well," Kaltenbach says, adding that the students were never registered in Bangor Township, and that their voter registration cards were merely sent to the wrong place.
While voting on Tuesday, students may face a poll challenger. Schnepf says that four people, including Yanca, have registered to be poll challengers, but that only one can be the spokesman for the poll challengers. There are limits, though, as to what a poll challenger can and cannot do.
"The only thing they can challenge on is that they are not a resident of the Township," Kaltenbach says. "You can't just indiscriminately challenge."
Leuenberger says the pro-rezoning side will not have any challengers.
"I think that's intimidating," he says. "That's not what we're trying to do."
Schnepf urges newly registered voters to bring identification to the polls.
"For first time voting, they're going to have to bring ID," he says. "If they don't bring an ID, their vote could be provisional." Any vote that is cast under provisional status would require Schnepf to confirm that the voter is registered within five days, or else the vote would not be counted.
Schnepf stresses his independence from student registration."I had nothing to do with the registration of students on campus," Schnepf says, adding that his job is to confirm the identity and residency of potential voters, and dole out ballots accordingly.
Andy Hoag also contributed to this story.