Massive student absentee voting overcame election day votes from older voters as an Iowa City ballot initiative to keep people under 21 out of bars after 10 p.m.failed yesterday.
No 8,895 (57%)
Yes 6,606 (43%)
The student vote proved decisive, as 46 percent of the vote came in on absentee ballots. In a reversal of normal city election trends, two-thirds of the absentees were from 18 to 24 year old voters. The overall absentee vote (there's no age breakdown available within the vote tally) went 74 percent no. The student absentee drive was capped by a week of satellite voting on campus that drew 2,900 voters.
About 700 mailed absentee ballots, mostly from students, remain unreturned. It's unlikely many will come back and it's not enough to reverse the outcome.
"The students stepped up," said Atul Nakhasi, mocking the name of student anti-alcohol group the Stepping Up Project which favored the ordinance. Nakhasi headed the student vote no group, the Student Health Initiative Taskforce, whose name the Iowa City Press-Citizen effused to print because of the rude acronym. "The students said we matter. The students said we will decide this election. We did!"
Under the city charter, the city council cannot now reverse the decision of the voters for the next two years.
Iowa City sent a mixed message in the council races themselves, re-electing unopposed incumbents Regenia Bailey (who opposed the 21 only measure) and Ross Wilburn (who supported keeping the younger crowd out of the bars). In the contested at-large race, where voters chose two candidates, vote no supporter Matt Hayek came in an overwhelming first. But newcomer Mike Wright, a 21 only supporter, won in second place. Hayek and Wright defeated newcomer Terry Smith, who was supported by the vote no group, and 12 year incumbent Dee Vanderhoef, a 21 only supporter who finished last.
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