Indiana election turnout sad

Judging from the voter turnout in Indiana's May 7 primary elections, an outside observer might surmise that voters' hands were chopped off after the last elections. Twenty-two percent of voters in Indiana cast ballots. \nBut a disparate turnout was found this week in the western African nation of Sierra Leone, which has seen more bloodshed, among innocent civilians, government soldiers and rebels alike, than many of us care to imagine. No Hollywood war movie can capture the ruthless maiming and killing of women and children that has gone on for years in Sierra Leone. After elections in 1996, Revolutionary United Front rebels rejected the election results and chopped off the hands of voters whom they said supported the government. \nThis week's elections in Sierra Leone, which has not officially been at war since January, saw over an 80 percent turnout in the capital of Freetown with other results not yet available. \nUnited Nations armed forces and a strong British military presence at polling stations helped ensure free and fair elections across the country. \nAssociated Press photos of Sierra Leone's long, winding lines of hundreds of voters in the hot African sun stand in stark contrast to the empty polling places in Monroe County, Ind., last week. Five of 98 precincts in the county had no voters at all and rarely did a polling place have more voters than it did paid election workers. \nAmong Sierra Leone's thousands of amputees, hundreds waited in one line to vote at a camp for war amputees. \n"After these elections there will be permanent peace," Hassan Bah, an amputee, told the AP. "We are ready now to cast our vote for prosperity and democracy."\nPreliminary results show incumbent President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah with a commanding lead over RUF-backed Pallo Bangura.\nWhile Sierra Leonean voters might have waited hours, it took me less than five minutes to push a few white buttons for my choices for local, state and federal elections. \nIU students who had left Bloomington by May 7 had the option of voting absentee (by mail or in person before they left) or voting at their permanent residence. If even just a portion of IU's student body voted, we could entirely change local elections and heavily influence state and federal races. \nWe don't need armed UN troops and tanks to guard our polling places. But perhaps it would take armed force to get some people to the polls. What a sad state of affairs. Our government's diplomats go around the world preaching democracy in countries with voter turnout much higher than our own. Is it really that hard to find five minutes between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. one day a year?\nThere is still plenty of time to register to vote for the Nov. 5 general election. Registration forms are available at a number of locations on campus and in Bloomington, including the Registrar's Office in Franklin Hall; the Voter Registration Office in the Justice Building, 301 N. College Ave.; and the City Clerk's Office in City Hall, 401 N. Morton St.