At least 15,701 people - the number of registered voters in Oxford as of November 2008 - will have a chance to vote in Oxford on Election Day 2009, but whether Miami University students choose to vote will significantly affect voter turnout and possibly the outcome of this general election.

The eternal debate in Oxford is how and to what extent Miami students are residents of the city. With thousands of students streaming through the university about every four years, it may seem Miami students are transients.

If voting habits are any indication, Miami students seem to agree.

On years without presidential elections, the Butler County Board of Elections reported voter turnout in Oxford is extremely low. In the general election of 2007 - one year before a record setting 7,932 Oxford residents and students voted during the historic 2008 presidential election - only 2,520 ballots were cast, for a turnout of 21.8 percent. In all but one of the non-presidential election years since 1998, voter turnout in Oxford has not surpassed 29.2 percent.

Oxford Mayor Prue Dana said she would like to see that trend reversed this November.

Dana said she sees student voting as something that could bring students closer to the community.

"I think if students can stretch themselves enough to realize that they are living in Oxford, and what an impact that has on us, then they should vote," Dana said.

This November's ballot will not be the blockbuster Obama-McCain affair of 2008. If students choose to vote in Oxford, they will have only two competitive local races to weigh in on.

Four candidates - John C. Brosier, Mary Jane Roberts, Lois Vollmer and Jim

Wachenheim - are running for two seats in the Talawanda Board of Education.

Three candidates - Larry A. Frimerman, Gary R. Salmon, and Dan Umbstead - are running for two seats as Oxford Township Trustees

Dana said student voting can make a big difference in Oxford's elections.

"They made a huge difference with our school issue (last year)," Dana said. "(Student participation) will make a difference as to how the school board operates."

The reasons why students choose not to vote in Oxford are many and varied, but the reason most often cited is a lack of awareness.

Sophomore Lisa Witek, a resident of Illinois, said she voted in Oxford last year to have a greater impact on the outcome of the presidential election. Although she is still registered in Oxford, she said she doesn't know much about this year's local races and probably won't vote. "I'm not going to vote for local things this year because I'm uninformed," Witek said. "I have too many other things on my mind."

According to Miami political science professor Karen Dawisha, the complication of registration also keeps many students from voting locally.

"Students are very busy," Dawisha said. "The whole act of figuring out how to register is a very complicated thing."

At this time last year, the campus was peppered with students handing out registration forms and encouraging their peers to register in Oxford.

Aaron Bly, president of the Miami University College Democrats, said it will be more difficult to get students to register to vote in Oxford this year.

"It's much more difficult to get students to come out and vote in an 'off' year," Bly said. "We don't have the same manpower that we did last year."

Bly said the College Democrats are looking for ways to take part in local campaigns as well as statewide issue campaigns.

Many students also choose not to vote in Oxford because they want to take part in their home elections.

Sophomore Alex Myers, a native of Illinois, said he feels more connected with issues back home. "I'm not a permanent resident of Oxford or Ohio … it's not my issue to be part of," Myers said. "My family pays taxes (in Illinois), I went to the public schools and my brother is still in school there."

While Dana said she would like to see more students voting in Oxford, not all year-round residents agree.

Groups opposed to the November 2008 passage of Issue 16, a bond levy which is paying for a new Talawanda High School, often alleged that the influence of student voting skewed the outcome of the election.

Dawisha said much of the opposition to student voting is based in Oxford Township, primarily due to a schism between the township and the city of Oxford on school funding issues.

"There is historical bad blood between the township and the city on this issue … Oxford township (residents) make sure that students are either discouraged from voting or given lots of reasons to vote 'no,'" Dawisha said.

Dawisha, who is an Oxford resident, argued this approach is self-destructive.

"If we disenfranchise students, then we 'dis-incentivize' students from seeing Oxford as a community in which they are members," Dawisha said. "We don't gain anything from students seeing this as a place that they can trash and move on."

Dana shared the sentiment of encouraging student accountability.

"It's important that everyone get in the habit of voting somewhere," Dana said. "We live with the consequences of our local and state decisions day by day."