By Jeanine Budd, News Staff

College students who have not voted in past mayoral elections may want to, and if they do, they could make a difference this year, with issues including affordable housing on the table, candidates said.
The three candidates who have announced their intent to run so far are at-large city councilors Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty and owner of South End business Wabash Construction Kevin McCrea.
If young people vote at the rate they did during last year’s presidential election, they could significantly impact the outcome, Yoon said.
‘Last year, 220,000 voters out of 330,000 registered voters [in Boston] came out to vote for Barack Obama in an election that didn’t really matter in terms of getting him to the White House, because you know, Massachusetts was already blue,’ Yoon said. ‘In the last city election, 49,000 came out, which is less than 14 percent of registered voters, and barely any of them were college students.’
While current Mayor Thomas Menino has yet to announce his candidacy, if he does choose to run he will be the first mayor to secure a fifth term in office in the city of Boston. According to local media reports, Menino has a record of not announcing his candidacy until close to the deadline, which this year is May 12.
This year he may face his toughest challenge since he first ran in 1993, with local media controversy revealing economic woes for the city and federal corruption investigations in the City Council and Licensing Board this year.
Jason Palitsch, president of the Northeastern University College Democrats, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Menino ran for a fifth term. There is no term limit.
Menino paid $3,000 to a campaign consultant located in California and $20,500 to election consulting company VR Research in February, according to local media reports.
The college vote in Boston has earned some attention in the past few years, Palitsch said.
‘It remains to be seen at this point, how many college students are registered to vote here as to how many vote in their home state,’ he said. ‘They have the option to change their registration to Boston, but that will depend whether or not there is a candidate who can excite them enough to do that.’
Yoon said that for him to defeat Menino, he will need the support of the city’s college students.
‘If people are satisfied with [Menino’s policies] and think he will continue to move us into the 21st century, then don’t bother [to vote],’ Yoon said. ‘But if you care and you want to engage in a discussion about how to make Boston a world-class city, and why college students come to study here, then I encourage you to check out my website, get involved, volunteer and see why you’re a part of this community.’
With two candidates having voted on issues affecting undergraduates, students may have a better reason to get involved this year.
Flaherty and Yoon voted in favor of the city ordinance known as ‘No More Than Four,’ which prohibits more than four undergraduate students from living together.
‘What we need to do is have students meet at the table, to solve the very problem that we’re talking about:’ trying to create a balance between students who need affordable housing, because they’re already paying 20 years into their future for student loans for a very expensive education here, and creating a balance, that would be the legitimate need for neighborhood residents to enjoy a peaceful living situation,’ Yoon said.
Flaherty said the city’s universities need to be held accountable for providing affordable housing for their students, which is something he said they currently do not do.
‘When they don’t do that, it forces students to look off campus, and when that happens, an attractive and cheaper alternative is to bunk-in with as many fellow students as possible, which admittedly I think that conflicts with some of the neighborhood concerns,’ he said. ‘I think that ‘No More than Four’ balances the playing field.’
McCrea said he doubts the ordinance is constitutional.
‘I think if everyone is a responsible citizen then people can live next to each other,’ he said. ‘I have a number of Northeastern students who actually live next door to me, and they often change hands every September and I always go out and talk to them and I tell them that all I ask is for them to be responsible neighbors.’
To help both students and families find suitable homes, the city needs to create more middle-income housing, McCrea said.
‘The city is actually sitting on thousands of pieces of property, which I have proposed that we sell, because we shouldn’t be land-banking essentially and we need to build housing,’ he said.
The voter registration deadline for the Sept. 22 preliminary election is Sept 2. The final election will be Nov. 3, with voter registration ending Oct. 14.