You’ve heard from Connor Reed, Indiana University and Ashlyn Salzman, WSU-Vancouver, about their interest in local government. To dig even deeper, we recently polled undergraduate students at a four-year university about their opinion of local government. Here’s what we heard.
“Our Congresswoman is inaccessible. She is never actually in town and doesn’t hold town hall meetings.”
“I’m generally repelled by government.”
“No matter the level of government, we only hear from our officials when they want our vote.”
“We don’t see much of the county officials unless it’s election time.”
“They don’t seem to be doing anything terrible that I hear about, so that’s good!”
“Our local government is essential to the functioning of our everyday lives.”
“I don’t know what’s going on in local government. Maybe they need to do more consistent outreach to their constituents.”
“Our local government is full of very friendly people, but they want something from you. They tell you what you want to hear.”
“I don’t know anything about it, so I don’t have an opinion.”
“It is very important for our local government to stay in touch with constituents, but they usually don’t.”