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Wednesday
An independent newspaper
Feeling good
Oregon volleyball picks up two straight wins and
gains momentum for the home stretch. PAGE 7A
Decisions, decisions
Check out the myriad options on this year's ballot in
the ODE Voter’s Guide. Inside Supplement
October25,2000
Volume 102, Issue 41
Weather
today
high 57, low 45
The price was right
Junior Minh Do, a exercise and movement science major, sits in one
episode on in which he won will be shown Thursday at 10:00 A.M..
_an Brunei! Emerald
previously-recorded
University
junior Minh
Do spent his
most recent
birthday
answering
Bob Barker’s
call to ‘come
on down’
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
When Minh Do heard the fa
mous line, “Come on down,”
he had no idea that Aug. 28
would be his best birthday
ever — and end with a payoff
of more than $50,000.
Do, a junior exercise and
movement science major, grew
up watching “The Price is
Right” with his brother and sis
ters whenever the show was
on television, but he never im
aged he would one day be a
contestant and win a Show
case Showdown.
The show airs at 10 a.m.
Thursday on CBS.
In August, Do drove to Los
Angeles to stay with his sister,
Phuong Do, for a week before
she started school at Mary
mount College in Rancho Palos
Verdes.
On their tour of Hollywood,
they visited the set of the ABC
television show “Politically In
correct” with Bill Maher on
Aug. 24.
After making a few in
quiries, they also got 10 tickets
for “The Price is Right,” filmed
at the CBS television studio.
While none of their friends
were interested in going with
them to see the show, Do and
his sister were determined to
attend. But before they could
get on the show, they waited in
line for more than 10 hours, he
said.
“The producers interview
everyone on the show,” Do
said. “The contestants are not
picked at random. The produc
ers just have to like you.”
Do said he told the produc
ers he was a college student at
the University of Oregon and
he was training for an Iron
Man Competition.
“I think they liked my look,”
Do said, who purposely wore
an Oregon sweatshirt during
the audition.
Seated in an audience of 300
people, Do was the last of six
contestants picked to play the
games.
“I was pretty positive about
it,” he said. “I had a feeling I
would get picked.”
Do’s sister had a different re
sponse.
“When he got called up on
stage, I had a delayed reac
tion,” she said. “I saw him get
up to walk on stage and then it
dawned on me — my brother
is on ‘The Price is Right.’ I
started screaming. I was so ec
static.”
But from the minute he set
foot on stage, Do said he wasn’t
impressed by the national tele
vision set.
Turn to Price, page4A
Political stars
will rock EMU
■This week, political activists and musicians
convene on the University
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
Political junkies, get ready for your
fix.
The next three days will be packed
with performances and speakers telling
students to vote — and who deserves
the student vote.
Feminist and author Gloria Steinem
will speak Wednesday night. Then
Thursday, former presidential candi
date Bill Bradley and Xander Patterson,
co-chair of the Pacific Green Party, are
scheduled to speak on campus about
the issues surrounding the November
election.
On Friday, Everclear will rock the
EMU Amphitheater in a free show to
promote student voting. Sen. Ron
Wyden will also speak at the event.
Steinem, the co-founder and con
tributing editor of Ms. Magazine, will
speak at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the EMU
Ballroom.
She has been touring college campus
es throughout the fall, but Oregon is es
pecially important to her because the
state could go either way in this year’s
presidential election.
Maureen Britell, executive director of
Voters For Choice, said Steinem will
stress both the importance of voting for
Gore and her belief that a vote for Green
Party candidate Ralph Nader is just a
vote for Republican candidate George
W. Bush.
Steinem is also the president of Vot
ers For Choice, a national group sup
porting Vice President Al Gore in the
election specifically because Gore is
pro-choice. The next president will be
appointing two to four justices to the
U.S. Supreme Court, and Gore has said
he would appoint justices who are pro
choice.
On Thursday afternoon, Bradley is
scheduled to appear in the EMU Am
phitheater to promote voter participa
tion in the November election. Bradley
ran against Gore in the Democratic pri
mary and gained the endorsement of
Gov. John Kitzhaber before dropping
out of the race.
Turn to Speakers, page 5A
BRADLEY
ALEXAKIS
Voters warmly endorse the convenience of mail-in ballots
Federal-level
candidates are
being chosen
via mail for the
first time
Rebecca Newell
For the Emerald
Oregon residents are making
history in the first exclusively
vote-by-mail presidential election.
With ballots in the mail or al
ready in the hands of voters, the
next step is awaiting the turnout
results for the election. Some bal
lots have already started to come
in, Lane County Elections Chief
Annette Newingham said.
“We’re just shy of 190,000 regis
tered voters [in Lane County],”
Newingham said. “I think the
vote-by-mail has the potential of
giving us a historic turnout.”
The last time a presidential elec
tion was close until Election Day
was eight years ago, when Lane
County had an 85 percent voter
turnout. That is a figure Newing
ham expects to match during this
year’s election, in which the presi
dential candidates are in a dead
heat.
Newingham said vote-by-mail
should also boost turnout.
“This is the first time in Oregon
and in the nation that federal-level
candidates have been elected by
vote-by-mail,” said Priscilla
Southwell, the University political
science department chair.
In 1996, Oregon performed its
first vote-by-mail senate election.
In response to public criticism of
the process, Southwell performed
a survey of the 1996 vote-by-mail
election, in conjunction with the
Oregon Survey Research Laborato
ry.
“There are concerns that there is
a greater chance of voter fraud and
negative domestic influence,” said
State Sen. Tony Corcoran, D-Cot
tage Grove. “But I think the posi
tive outweighs the negative.”
Southwell agreed, saying that
though there were concerns about
vote-by-mail, they are for the most
part unfounded.
“There was a lot of speculation
in the media coverage about vote
by-mail, and not a lot of evi
Turn to Mail-in, page 5A