New A2 voters may face confusion

By Jeremy W. Peters

Daily Staff Reporter

Since Michigan residents must register to vote in the city listed on their drivers licenses, many students have changed their addresses to Ann Arbor but do not know where they should cast their ballot Tuesday.

Couple this with one of the highest projected voter turnouts in the state's history, and the result could be somewhat chaotic come Election Day.

Secretary of State Candice Miller released the state's official projected voter turnout numbers this week, and at 4.3 million, it is significantly higher than in 1996 when 3.9 million voters went to the polls. The figure is about the same as the number of Michigan voters who cast ballots in 1992.

Michigan Student Assembly's Voice Your Vote commission, which registered more than 6,000 people to vote in Ann Arbor in the past year, is expressing concern that some students may run into difficulty when they try to vote.

VYV Chair Shari Katz cited the fact that some of the voter registration forms could have been illegible or contained mistakes - factors that could inhibit some from receiving their registration cards in the mail.

"If students registered to vote in Ann Arbor and have yet to receive their voter registration card they can call the City Clerk's office ... and the Clerk will take their word for it that they registered before the deadline," Katz said.

Considering that many newly registered voters have never voted in Ann Arbor before, many may not know where their polling place is located.

Interim City Clerk Yvonne Carl said those unclear as to where they vote should either call or stop by her office before Tuesday to avoid any confusion.

Carl said her office has been swamped during the past few days with voter registration concerns.

"We're just making sure the kids know where they need to go before they vote. It's much better if they call now because on Election Day they may not be able to get through," Carl said.

The tightness of the presidential and senatorial races, combined with a high projected voter turnout in Michigan should crowd the polls. The secretary of state's prediction was based on these two factors and more.

"In this case Michigan is ground zero," secretary of state spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. "We looked at particular circumstances of the election such as this but we also look at turnout in similar elections."

But previous data suggests that an election this close should have an unusually high turnout.

In 1960, the closest presidential election before this year, Michigan experienced a 96 percent turnout among registered voters. This year the secretary of state is predicting 63 percent of its registered voters will turn out.

"Wouldn't that be wonderful if we were wrong?" Boyd said.

Boyd said the projected increase - 4 percent - is so low because they are expecting this election to be the catalyst for a gradual increase in voter turnout.

"We're hoping to reverse the drop in turnout by seeing a slight increase from 1996. I think we simply have to look at this as ground we're making up," she said.