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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, April 14,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Page Assistant:
Salena De La Cruz
‘Choice voting’
gives students
representation,
reason to vote
Guest commentary
With student government elections under way, young
people across the country are being asked to vote for
student representatives. But many times this plea is an
swered with a more difficult question: “Why should I
vote? It doesn’t count.”
While sometimes seen as a sign of apathetic young
people or a lament about the limited powers of student
governments, examining this statement can reveal a
deeper political problem. One of the basic ideas of
democracy, that the people vote and then receive repre
sentation, is not being realized by the current political
system. Rather than expressing apathy, students are be
ing realistic about how much impact their vote has.
Under the current winner-take-all plurality voting sys
tem used in most U.S. elections, a candidate who wins a
bare 51 percent majority can receive 100 percent of the
representation. As many as 49 percent of votes do not
lead to a voice in government. For these people, their
votes do not count.
But a new political reform idea gaining momentum on
college campuses can ensure that all votes count and all
voters are represented. Choice voting, a form of full rep
resentation, was passed overwhelmingly last month by
the Associated Students of University of Califomia
Davis. Instead of just marking one candidate on the bal
lot, the system allows voters to rank candidates in order
of preference. These preferences are then used to award
seats. If there are 10 seats to be filled, a candidate needs
the support of about a tenth of students to win a seat. If
there are five seats, a candidate will win with the sup
port of 20 percent of students.
Choice voting dramatically increases the chance
that a ballot will lead to representation. If a smaller
group of like-minded voters prefer a candidate, they
can win at least one seat. Also, if a voter’s first choice
is not strong enough to win, their second choice is con
sidered. Ranking candidates ensures that more than 90
percent of ballots lead directly to representation when
electing 10 seats.
This is significant for student governments, where
elections are often dominated by a particular campus
group. The winner-take-all system allows a dominant
group to win a vast majority of seats. Under choice
voting, smaller student groups can consolidate their
support and win representation. The typical result is
a more diverse student government representing
more views.
Harvard, Princeton, University of Illinois, Garleton
College and Vassar all use choice voting or another form
of full representation. Even more schools use instant
runoff voting. On the international scene, the United
States and Canada are the only major democracies still
using winner-take-all exclusively for national elections,
and nearly all British universities elect student govern
ment personnel with choice voting.
While the low voter turnout of 18-24-year-olds in na
tional elections is seen as a crisis, these numbers are
just as compelling in student elections. Each spring,
there is usually an article or editorial about whether stu
dent government elections really matter. But under the
winner-take-all electoral system, student governments
don’t represent enough of the students, and therefore,
students don’t vote.
Implementing choice voting and providing represen
tation to all students would help reverse this trend.
Winning a seat at the table is a powerful incentive to
care about the decisions made there.
A recent graduate of the University of Iowa, John Russell
is the student outreach coordinator at the Center for Voting
and Democracy. For more information, visit
http://www.fairvote.org/schools/studhome.htm.
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Peter Utsey Emerald
Recounting the past
There will be no talk of war for me
today because it is my birthday. I’m 26
today, and I can’t help but think about
the road that has gotten me here and
the people who have helped to shape
who I am. My birthday wish is to re
member those times and people and
how I’ve got where I am.
I look at myself and wonder about how
I came to be the
loud-mouthed
columnist that you
have come to know
and love. Truth be
told, I was the
closed-mouth, shy
girl who sat in the
back of the class
room in her frilly
dress and Mary
Jane shoes. I was
the girl whom most
people never no
ticed. I was the girl who excelled in aca
demics but wasn’t very social. In short, I
was the little girl most of us were.
Then came my time to blossom. I re
member it distinctly: My mom came to my
room and said she’d entered me in a beau
ty pageant. I thought it was a joke because
my self-confidence was lacking. Even
though my parents constantly told me to
go for the gold, and to follow my dreams, I
never thought I was good enough. Well,
thanks to the Irish stubbomess of my
mother and the fabulous person she is, I
competed and became a finalist.
Salena
DeLaCruz
Say it loud
After that first taste, I entered three
more times and was slowly pulled from
my shell of shyness and low self-worth. I
was beginning to feel like somebody. Af
ter that I wanted to join everything; I
wanted to do it all. That was my first step
to independence and my own identity.
My eighth grade English teacher, Mrs.
Halter, sparked my interest in writing and
made me strive for greatness. She told me
I could accomplish anything I put my
mind to. She took each student and treat
ed him or her as an important individual,
not just a number. Oh, but that was only a
taste of what I was looking for.
My freshman year in high school, I
joined our newspaper and yearbook staff
and was sucked into the vortex of writing
and taking pictures. These were always
my hobbies — but to do it as a job? It
didn’t stop there, oh no.
My sophomore year in high school, my
drama teacher pulled what was left of me
out of my shell by giving me the opportu
nity to lead students in our yearly
“spookhouse” and direct student plays. I
never looked back. I loved the spotlight.
Then my fatal downfall: I fell in love
my junior year in high school, and noth
ing else seemed to matter. I could have
attended the Art Institute of Seattle, but
he wanted me to stay with him. He made
me believe I wasn’t good enough for him,
and he was doing me a favor by staying
with me. He made me believe I couldn’t
make it through college.
I became afraid of being alone, of being
without him. So, I didn’t go; in fact, I
waited three years before I made it back
to school and even longer to get out of the
shell he had shoved me back into.
In May of 1997, my younger brother
was troubled by all of die “no skateboard
ing and rollerblading” signs and went to
the city council for a solution. They told
him they’d agree to get a skate park made
in Molalla if he came up with a proposal.
My brother, then 14, didn’t know what
to do, so I stepped in. That month, I estab
lished a non-profit organization whose pri
mary mission was to build a skate park.
The park opened June 24,2000.
I got involved because I saw a lot of
myself in my little brother — I could see
a great drive in him, a drive that at one
time I was too afraid to follow through on,
a drive that will propel him to do what he
wants with his life and not let anyone
hold him back. Way to go, Tim!
It might take a lifetime for most peo
ple to know even half of this informa
tion. I’m telling my story so everyone
might stop and think of the people and
circumstances that put us all where we
are. Regardless of whether times were
good or bad, they were defining mo
ments. Had it not been for all the twists
and turns in my life, I wouldn’t be here,
“Saying it loud.”
Contact the columnist
atsalenadelacruz@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
ASUO elections letter policy
Letters to the editor endorsing candidates in the ASUO
limited to 200 words', and authors are limited to one
Submission per calendar month.Candidates^ not
send letted endorsing their own candidacy, although
they may endorse others. Letters will be printed on a
first-come, first-serve basis and publication is not
guaranteed. Letters must be received by 3 p.m.
Wednesday, April 16, to be considered for publication,
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