By Bryan Cohen

A wave of voter apathy swept across Boston Tuesday when turnout in city council elections dropped to its lowest numbers in decades.

Without a mayoral race and with five of nine district seats running unopposed – combined with rainy New England weather – a perfect storm of conditions set the scene for the dismal voter turnout, experts said.

“When you don’t have a mayor or big issue on the ballot, it depresses the turnout,” said Professor John Portz, chair of the political science department. “A big candidate or issue would pull people out to the election.”

In recent years, elections were powered by enthusiasm surrounding candidates like Maura Hennigan, who strived to become the first female mayor, and Sam Yoon, Boston’s first Asian council member. But this year only 13.6 percent of registered voters came to the polls, even though the Commissioner of the Boston Election Department Geraldine Cuddyer predicted a 30 percent turnout.

The poorest voting percentages were in the city’s predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, but some of the city’s voter deficiency can be attributed to the student population, Cuddyer said.

“College students and young professionals are not making the connection between local elected officials and their daily lives,” Cuddyer said. “But local officials are making decisions that affect the quality of life in the city.”

Some Northeastern students, however, did turn out to vote. And some students even worked for candidates: Josh Robin, a middler political science major, worked for the John Connolly campaign.

“I did a lot of phone calls, droppings, canvassing and just about everything that’s involved on the ground in a campaign,” Robin said.

In the only change to the councilor at-large positions, Connolly bumped out incumbent councilor Felix Arroyo, who was the first ever Latino member of the council and was considered a strong voice for the Jamaica Plain community.

Although Connolly’s campaign was hit by controversy this weekend when he admitted sending anonymous flyers, taking shots at incumbent candidate Stephen Murphy, he beat Arroyo by three percent. Connolly took 15 percent of the total votes.

At any given time, the Connolly campaign reported having 30 students volunteering.

“In a council race, you only really need four people to run a campaign, so students involved have had a significant impact,” said Robin, who is the president of the NU Democrats. “We’ve made thousands of calls a week.”

Staked out in front of Matthews Arena, the only polling location on campus, freshman journalism major Rosa Barney also contributed to Connolly’s win.

“I’ve been here through the rain and everything,” said Barney, donning rain boots, clutching Connolly flyers to hand to voters. “I’ve been here since 6:45 [a.m.] and only left to go to class.”

Barney started attending NU Democrats meetings this year, and it is there Connolly first caught her ear.

“I started to look into him and really liked what he stood for,” Barney said.

Barney said she found Connolly’s concern for the prosperity of younger generations in the city appealing. Soon, she was a registered voter in Boston.

“This will be my home for the next five years, so it makes sense,” she said. “[Connolly is] trying to make things more affordable, he wants keep young families in the city. As a student, it’s important to me that he wants to make the community safer by using more community policing. As a young girl, that’s important when walking around at night.”

Student support is arguably one reason Connolly won. After losing an election for the same position two years ago, some experts said it was because Arroyo canvassed inadequately.

“Arroyo didn’t work that hard, didn’t get out the vote,” Portz said. “The people who get out the vote are going to make it. In this situation