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Monday, May 3, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EDITORIAL.
Voter apathy
among youth
generation
is foreboding
Low turnout of the youth vote — especially in tight races
— has long been a sore point for young activists. Accord
ing to the Washington, D.C.-based Committee for the
Study of the American Electorate, voter participation
among 18 to 24-year-olds has declined in recent decades.
In 2000, only 28.7 percent of people in that age group vot
ed in local, state and federal elections.
But if these numbers point to a disenchanted apathy, stu
dent participation in ASUO elections is abysmally depress
ing. This year, only 14 .1 percent of the student body voted
in die primary election, and a pitiful 9.9 percent did in the
general elecdon.
While this year's participation was significandy better
than 1993's all-time low of 5.8 percent, it's still a far cry
short of 28.7 percent, and a democratic tragedy compared
to 1955's campus voter turnout of some 43 percent.
This apathy, needless to say, is bad for the interests of col
lege students on both the University and national levels.
"It's supposed to be a representative government, and it's
hard to say that you're representing everyone when only a
small number of people turn out to vote," ASUO President
elect Adam Petkun said.
But on the national scale, where much more than just
student interests are in play, from the seeds of apathy grows
political disadvantage. Although most of the American
public education system needs fiscal and structural reform,
it's not a jump to think that higher education has suffered
worse than primary and secondary education because par
ents of elementary and high school students tend to vote,
whereas college students often don't.
Who or what is to blame for this flagging participation,
at least at the University level? Well, there are at least a cou
ple ideas.
"It's hard to engage young folks in political processes,"
ASUO President Maddy Melton said. "I think that if we
could learn how to engage students in the political process
at large, you would see the trend of voting go way up."
At least part of the problem lies with the ASUO Election
Board's planning. Ignoring a Constitution Court demand
that the board carefully schedule this year's elections to
avoid a conflict with the law school's Dead Week, and un
der the duress of technical and bureaucratic problems, the
Election Board scheduled primary and general elections in
a way that gave candidates scant time to prepare and cam
paign. Worse, these problems were compounded by an ill
prepared elections packet that was rejected not once, but
twice by the Court. That the lack of time for candidates to
share their ideas with students left the campus less in
formed, while simultaneously not helping turnout, is also
unacceptable
To the board's credit, they at least provided pizza at this
year's general election presidential debate, which surely
would have helped gamer interest if any fraction of the stu
dent body actually cared.
In any case get out and vote this November in your lo
cal, state and national elections. And if you're among the
90.1 percent of students who didn't vote in this year's
ASUO election and aren't graduating, speak your voice and
do so next year.
EDITORIAL POLICY
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Responses can be sent to letters
@dailyemerald.com. Letters to the editor and guest
commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited
to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550 words.
Authors are limited to one submission per calendar
month. Submission must include phone number and
address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right
to edit for space, grammar and style.
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Clipboards, clipboards, go away
You can tell it's spring on campus. Every
one is lying outside on the lawns, girls are
wearing obscenely small amounts of cloth
ing and you can't make it from your house
to class without being assaulted by some
one with a clipboard.
Luckily, we all survived ASUO election
season again. The minute the first puffy
paint sign showed up, I sighed with a feel
ing of, "Here we go again." My friends and I
used many tactics to avoid the student gov
ernment street assaults. The easiest option
was just to avoid the sidewalks near the
EMU Amphitheater. This route usually
boiled down simply to swinging wide and
aitting across the Collier House lawn. If
you were feeling bold enough to stick to the
main route, you would ultimately be ac
costed by someone with a flier about his or
her best friend, listing the reasons why the
person is such a wonderful candidate. You
could take the flier, read it, realize that it has
absolutely nothing to say, and then put it in
the garbage. Or you could have taken the
paper-saving route and rejeaed the flier.
However, this method of avoidance re
quired saying something like, "No thanks.
I've already voted."
It's hard to be polite to people who ask
you the same question three times in one
day. I said "no" on my way to creative writ
ing. Did you really think I would have
changed my mind after accounting? But
you can't be too hard on the ASUO candi
dates. I mean, they are only "the voice" of
students. They're astounded that voter
turnout was low, when most students are
astounded at the fart that during all the
years they've been at the University, they've
never seen an ASUO Executive who has re
ally lived up to his or her campaign plat
form.
But now that the elections are over, a new
evil is rising on campus. The off-campus po
Marissa Jones
Cry me a river
litical groups are coming in with their clip
boards, taking advantage of pale students
trying to enjoy the sun. This past Monday, I
sat outside, reading a book on a bench by
the EMU East Lawn. Unfortunately, it was
n't the relaxing spot I had hoped for. I had a
few close encounters with a Frisbee, which
were followed by the clipboard man. He
didn't have to talk for long before I ex
plained to him I wasn't registered to vote in
Oregon, a comment that stopped him in
his tracks. Of course, now I was distracted
from my reading, so I watched him walk
around gathering signatures from sun
bathers, who couldn't have listened to him
talk about the petition for more than a
minute before signing. It's a "pity signa
ture," really. Sometimes you can't help but
feel bad for the person who is willing to
walk up to everyone and ask the same ques
tion over and over.
After watching him walk around, I did
feel bad about how short I was with him.
However, my feelings changed after he ap
proached me three more times that same
day. By the last time, I was so annoyed that I
was ready to start my own petition asking
for a dead zone where I could sit on cam
pus and not be bothered.
I shifted to the tables outside the Fish
bowl. Here I witnessed something extreme
ly hilarious: The collision of two clipboard
carriers. While I watched a woman trying to
convince a student to sign her petition, the
previous clipboard man walked up, ex
plaining his petition to the two of them.
The first one piped up saying, "Hey, I'm try
ing to get him to sign my petition here!"
The second one apologized and walked
away rather dejectedly to the next table. Ap
parently the clipboard carriers find each
other just as annoying as students find
them. Who knew?
So how do you effectively combat the
clipboard carriers? Well, the best tactic is to
come up with a good brushoff. The stan
dard, "I'm not registered to vote in Oregon,"
may work best but don't be afraid to have
fun with it. Once, when an advocate held
up a clipboard to a student saying "Save the
whales?," the student replied with, "Sorry,
I've already eaten lunch." Needless to say,
this comment threw the clipboard carrier
off so much that he didn't even have an ar
gument to the student's apathy.
If you take the high road and listen to
what they have to say, I suggest you really
listen. I have had some very interesting con
versations with clipboard carriers before,
which made me really think about certain
issues, although their arguments still didn't
convince me to sign. The point is, don't be
bullied into signing something because it's
easier than talking. If you don't have the
time to talk, then don't sign something you
know little about.
As annoying as the evil clipboard carriers
are, just remember they wouldn't be out an
noying you on the bench if the sun weren't
shining. And that alone is enough to over
shadow their pestering.
Contact the columnist
at marissajones@dailyemerald.com. Her
opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
ONLINE POLL
Each week, the Emerald publishes
the results of the previous poll and
the coming week’s poll question.
Visit http://www.dailyemerald.com
to vote.
Last question: Do you feel safe walking
alone on campus at night?
Results: 50 votes.
• Yes - The campus is well-lit: 42.0"
percent or 21 votes.
• Yes — Public safety is present: 32.0
percent or 16 votes.
• No - Campus is poorly lit: 14.0
percent or 7 votes.
• No — Recent crimes have made me
avoid campus at night: 12.0 percent
or 6 votes.
This week: Squirrel fishing?!
Choices: Awesome!!; Cruel!!; Happy
squirrels!!; Stupid!!; What is that?!