Tuesday's municipal primary election delivered some important messages both to Slippery Rock Township residents and to students at Slippery Rock University, whose absentee ballots apparently were the difference in the passage of two alcohol-related referendums.

By close votes, 239-225 for malt-brewed beverages and 237-231 for allowing liquor licenses in the municipality, voters brought to an end the township's "dry" status.

Without the absentee ballots, the referendum involving malt-brewed beverages would have been defeated 220-189, while liquor licenses would have been defeated 226-187.

The important messages in Tuesday's alcohol-related votes were that every vote is important and that voters, no matter how young, can make a difference in an election.

Township residents outside the realm of the university who opposed the referendums are the main reason that the referendums passed. According to the county election office, only 10 percent of the township's registered voters went to the polls on Tuesday.

With a voter showing like that, it would seem that most township residents were indifferent to the alcohol issue, despite the vocal opposition coming from some residents and officials such as township supervisor John Hines. On election night, Hines said he wanted residents to know that college students' votes produced what in his eyes were the undesired outcomes.

Had longtime township residents been motivated to defeat the referendums, they could have done so with relative ease.

Instead, while 21 percent of voters countywide went to the polls, less than half of that percentage was recorded in a township that, based on the liquor issue alone, should have had a voter turnout approaching 60 or 70 percent.

Perhaps most township residents embraced the idea that Slippery Rock Borough voters who passed two similar referendums in 2001 didn't bring on the demise of their community, and that Slippery Rock Township likewise would not experience any serious ill effects from the passage of its referendums.

Tuesday's vote might even improve safety on the roads, if township residents who frequent bars and restaurants serving alcohol do so closer to their homes rather than in other, more-distant locales.

Meanwhile, Slippery Rock University students — those who chose to vote and those who didn't — were, on the basis of the referendum tallies, reminded that they can indeed make a difference on important community issues, despite their young age and limited civic and community experience.

But most notable is the realization that no vote is unimportant.

"I think that this is a good showing for the entire Slippery Rock community," said Itzi Meztli, an SRU professor who organized absentee ballot drives during the last week of the just-completed semester. "We know that a major resource here is the university, and we have 8,000 students, and when parents come in, I think they should have nice restaurants to sit down and eat at, and this will encourage economic development."

Meztli, who touted the votes as a win-win for the entire Slippery Rock community, predicted that everyone in the township would benefit from the change, presumably based on the new or expanded businesses that would result.

Tuesday's final tallies were eye-opening for some voters, particularly those who anticipated that the referendums would be passed or defeated by wide margins.

Perhaps some won't be so indifferent the next time they are called upon to decide an important issue or to nominate or elect someone for a hotly contested office.