Election Day is just one month away, and interest tends to be down during midterm years, some Kent State University students find themselves heavily involved in the political process. TV2’s Tyler Carey has the story.

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The midterm elections are fast approaching, and several Kent State students find themselves deeply involved in local campaigns. Both KSU’s Democratic and Republican student organizations are hard at work knocking on doors, passing out flyers, and anything else candidates ask them to do.

“We help pretty much everybody that comes to us if their within a reasonable driving distance,” says Schad Dalton, President of the Kent State College Democrats. His group has lent its assistance to several candidates, including state reps Kathleen Clyde and David Worhatch.

While the students enjoy what they do, it’s not easy to get results, especially during a midterm election. During the most recent midterms four years ago just 43.6 percent of eligible Ohio voters went to the polls. While that number was above the national rate (37.8 percent), it’s still much less than the 62.7 percent that voted two years later during the Presidential election.

Despite the expectation of a drop off, Dalton says he is pleased with the number of people the Young Dems have registered to vote, along with the amount of people getting involved with the organization.

“We’ve been maintaining a pretty solid base of people that come to our meetings,” he says, “and we don’t [always have] the same faces each week…It’s actually pretty encouraging.”

As for voter turnout, Dalton acknowledges it’s difficult to get people fired up when there’s no Presidential race. This is somewhat disheartening, as he feels “all politics is local.”

“As sexy as the Presidential election is,” he says, “it’s not nearly as big a deal in the grand scheme of things as your local races and your state races.”

Dalton added that the school’s Democratic and Republican political groups get along quite well, despite their ideological differences. He hopes this can be a sign of greater bipartisanship for future generations.