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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon. uoregon.edu Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: www.uoregon.edu/-ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Mike Schmierbach Make the mailbox a ballot box AN EMERALD EDITORIAL Tuesday’s election demonstrates the cost and inconvenience of a polling place election Remember election day? Sitting around the television, watching results come in, cheering when the right candidates won, booing when they didn’t? Little graphics that ap peared at the bottom of the screen, telling you that, with 70 or 80 percent of the precincts reporting in, so-and-so was the next such-and-such? None of that made a regular appearance Tuesday evening. Granted, it was only a primary. Granted, most of the “important” races were uncontested, and there was only one statewide ballot measure. Granted, people just don’t care about the process like they ought to. Nevertheless, the biggest reason is that this election was “a dysfunctional, costly mess,” according to a quote from Secretary of State Phil Keisling in Wednesday’s Reg ister-Guard. Although it was officially a traditional polling-place election, more than 60 per cent of ballots cast in the primary were sent in by mail, according to The Register Guard. In order to ensure people didn’t vote twice (by mail and at the polls), coun ty elections officials didn’t start counting absentee ballots until they had recorded all non-mail votes. This left candidates, reporters and politi cal observers wondering just what had hap pened. While some races were obvious, most close contests remained unresolved well into Wednesday. It also left state elections officials stag gered by the cost of the whole affair, de spite the fact that turnout was near a record low. According to The Register-Guard, Keisling reports that the $4 million price tag was more than twice what a purely vote-by-mail election would have cost. The solution should be obvious. A vote by-mail only election would have eliminat ed confusion — thereby increasing turnout — and lowered the cost of the election. It would also have allowed workers to begin counting the ballots earlier, meaning can didates and the public would have a clear idea of who won and lost on the night of the election. Keisling has long been an advocate of mail-in elections. Despite his position and the clear practical reason for going to vote-by-mail, Republican legislators worked to block a proposal to make the switch during the 1997 state Legislature session. All the blame doesn’t rest with the GOP, however. According to The Regis ter-Guard, Gov. Kitzhaber vetoed a vote by-mail bill that was passed two years earlier. It doesn’t make sense. In another Keis ling quote from The Register-Guard, he sums up the absurdity of continuing polling place elections nicely: “It’s irra tional and absurd to have this hybrid sys tem.” Another opportunity for change is com ing up. Keisling and the League of Women Voters are collecting signatures to place a measure on the November bal lot that would mandate vote-by-mail elec tions. Unfortunately, according to a Register Guard editorial, this effort has collected less than half the 73,600 signatures needed to place the measure on the fall ballot. This is due in part to the coalition’s refusal to use paid signature gatherers — an ad mirable stance. The group is looking for citizens to help gather signatures in time to make the July 2 deadline. Students interested in the politi cal process should consider helping; the group can be contacted toll-free at 1-877 868-3826. At the very least, registered Oregon vot ers should add their own names to the stack of signatures. The money needed to run a more expensive election is your mon ey, and the cost of voter apathy is a less ef fective system. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emer ald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Drawing Board Mb GhskSricw UCtursS Mb Cuntojv fro* mis moral hi6w 6Roquo.. thank GOooneSS those MVPOCRITE5 at MIKE have finally REFORMED./^ 4 BAG ASSEMBLED BV CHEAP LABOR IN INDONESIAJ: LAPTOP BUILT BY CHEAP LABOR IN TAIWAN HAT MADE BY CHEAP LABOR IN NICARAGUA SHlflT SEwn gy CHEAP LABOR J IN HONDURAS CAR ASSEM8UD BY CHEAP LABOR IN MEXICO t" — »NT$ SEWN BV (HEAP LABOR IN CHINA LETTERS TO THE EOJTOR Hallelujah Herald Editor and publisher Tony Baker calls his news paper The Register-Guard. Some Lane County freethinkers wryly refer to the lopsidedly evange listic diurnal as the Hallelujah Herald. This sobri quet has its genesis not only in the plethora of front-page opinion pieces authored by piety pro moter Jeff Wright, but also in clericalist editorials such as the one titled “Good ruling on scouts” that aptly appeared on April Fool’s Day. The Register-Guard, to use Baker’s appellation, contends that deputy superintendent of public in struction Greg McMurdo is correct in viewing the Boy Scouts of America as essentially secular de spite the fact that the youth organization’s leaders — through blackballing and expulsion — preach intolerance for all who are not heterosexual ad herents to a theistic religion. Eugene’s daily news paper thereby encourages the state Department of Education to bulldoze a gaping hole in the First Amendment by continuing to allow the BSA to use the public schools for recruitment campaigns that inevitably result in the indoctrination of youngsters with fundamentalist bigotry. While defending McMurdo’s flawed interpreta tion of church-state separation, the intrepid pal adins on The Register-Guard’s editorial board of fer absolutely no opinion about the ethicality of the Boy Scouts’ discriminatory practices, which are clearly based on religious dogma. A newspaper does not take a stand by burying its masthead in the sands of tacit approval. If The Register-Guard supports the BSA’s brainwashing of Oregon schoolchildren with intolerance for non-theistic Theravada Buddhists, agnostics, sec ular humanists, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and other minorities, the publication should speak out and say so. Ron Black Junction City Change rape education Throughout this school year, I have watched the blundering of various women’s services on cam pus, hoping that eventually they would stumble onto a rational path. However, May 18’s display of deep and meaningful T-shirts convinced me that they really have gone off the deep end. The techniques of the Women’s Center and its affili ates portray women as victims and men as a malevolent race, some of whom can be acceptable after they have been properly trained. I find these ideas offensive and incorrect. Rape is an extremely traumatizing experience, and be cause of this, the causes of rape need to be identi fied, and all women should be able to defend themselves and, if assaulted, go immediately to the police, prosecute the male and begin the heal ing process. All this is a given, but like any other shattering experience, after a certain point life must go on and wallowing is counter-productive. Judging from reactions I have seen and heard, your manner of dealing with the issue is off putting at least. Nowhere have I seen an ad for a forum dealing with why rape and sexual assault occurs, and in terestingly enough I have never seen a workshop or anything else for women who falsely accuse men of rape. This occurs frequently and is just as psychologically damaging to men as the act of rape is to women. How do you expect to empower women and gain respect if you cannot even allow for the possibility that men are not beasts? The message you are sending right now is that women are victims and men are evil, and this is demoral izing to the student body. I would suggest rethink ing your tactics, since no one could find fault with your cause. Kate Queary History Thumbs To Take Back ihe Night: The idea behind this event is ad mirable and the for mat necessary. While it isn't true for all women at all times, many women often feel afraid to be out alone at night. No one should have to re strict their activities out of fear. Take Back the Night, which will gather between 6:45 p.m. and 9 p,m. tonight in the EMU Am phitheater, is an op portunity to protest that fear. Therefore, it makes sense that the event require men interested In supporting the movement to march separately from women—anything else would miss the point. Women should be able to walk on their own; an effective protest thus involves women marching on their own. To Oliver North: North compared Oregon and its le galization of assist ed suicide to Nazi euthanasia prac tices twice during a speech. This is trou blesome for two reasons. For one thing, Oregon’s law doesn’t allow eu thanasia, in which a doctor actively ends toetlfeofaterminal ly ill patient, in stead, assisted sui cide requires a patient to take the fatai dose of med ication. Additionally, the comparison is insuiting to Oregon voters and offensive to those who sur vived Nazi Ger many. it has be comefartoo common for politi cians and activists to rely upon com parisons to Nazi practices, which has toe effect of dulling people’s sense of how horrific toe ac tual events of Worid War II and toe Holo caust were.
