Spring Break
New Jersey strikes down stem cell research bill
Michelle Walbaum
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
The bill, introduced by the New Jersey state government, would have allowed the state to borrow $450 million over a period of 10 years to fund stem cell research around the state.
Wise Young, a stem cell research activist, thinks the small percentage of registered voters who came to the polls may have been the cause.
"What drove the vote was not the fear of taxes or bonds," said Young, a neuroscience professor at Rutgers University. "I think it is the difference in voter turnout in different counties."
Young said New Jersey voters passed a $200 million open spaces act on the same day, which shows the $30 billion debt New Jersey has racked up is not why many voters chose to vote down the stem cell bill.
Even in Middlesex County, home of the university and the recently announced Stem Cell Research Institute, the bill did not pass the voters. Fifty-two percent of voters did not support it, while 48 percent did, Young said.
Young said he thinks if more University students voted, the outcome may have been different within the county.
"There were very, very few voters from Rutgers. Most students did not vote," Young said.
With two hours left to go at the polls Tuesday, only around 40 students voted in the Busch Campus Center, said Edna J Cameron, the Democrat Official challenger overlooking the polling area.
Also, the elections were on an odd year, Young said, which made it difficult to get voters out to the polls. Odd-year elections do not include national elections and so are generally not as popular as elections taking place on even years.
Young said he compiled percentages of voters by county in order to explain why he feels the absence of voters in counties sympathetic to the bill stopped it from passing.
In Bergen County, where voters supported the stem cell bill, the voter turnout was slightly under the 30 percent mark. In others pro-bill counties, such as Hudson and Essex, voter turnout was about 10 percent of voters registered. Meanwhile, in some counties where residents voted against the bill, the voter turnout was 30 percent or above. For example in Cape May, more than 40 percent of registered voters showed up at the polls, Young said.
Be the first to comment on this story