Rock the Vote 2008

Tim Zoyac and Pamela Young accept applications from Jillian Torres and Chaz Bey.

      By ALI KURECZKA
      Staff Writer 

      During this time in America, one thing is clear: everyone needs to vote. For the past week and a half, Cumberland County College’s Student Senate, Latin American Club, and American Federal Government class have devoted their time and energy to encourage students to register to vote.     

      “We wanted to be a proactive voice as a Student Senate and we wanted to make sure that student voices were heard on campus as well as nation-wide,” said Director of Student Life and Athletics, Kellie Slade. 

      There were tables set up all around campus with students from these organizations getting people to register to vote. “This has brought an awareness to the student body that we, as Americans, need to voice our opinions and use our right to vote. I believe that through an election is the right way,” said Student Senate Secretary, Tim Zoyac. 

      This is not the first time Cumberland County College has sponsored a Rock the Vote campaign. Last year, Sirus from MTV’s The Real World: Seattle came to the campus. He talked to students about how important it was to vote. That was just a prelude to this Rock the Vote 2008 campaign. 

      The registration process was very simple. A student who wanted to register to vote would fill out a registration application and hand it to the people at the table. “It’s a very quick process.  They don’t realize how easy it is. I should have brought my ‘Easy’ button in so that after the student filled out the application, they could press it and hear ‘That was easy!,’” said Kellie Slade. 

      The applications were then sent in as soon as possible, so they can be processed before the October 14th deadline. The students then receive their voter registration card and a confirmation letter in the mail.  

      Approximately 150 applications were filled out, but whether or not the students will actually put their right to vote to use is another question. “Just to have them registered, knowing that their right is being received is a good start,” said Kellie Slade. 

      The Rock the Vote campaign is going to be an annual event every September and October. For every local and presidential election, it will give the students an opportunity to utilize their campus resources. Voting is the most important right a person can have, and the Rock the Vote 2008 event really helped students understand that.  

      “As long as they are getting connected in some way or shape or form, in terms of utilizing their right and privilege of voting, whether they like the candidates or not, I want them to feel that they can exercise their right to vote. I want to make sure that they are definitely being exposed to the process,” said Slade.

Negative Ads Mislead Voters

By SAUL ROSA
Staff Writer 

 

 

Negative advertising has been prominent in the 2008 election, and has been used by both parties to confuse, mislead, and draw voters to their parties.  

     According to a report released by the University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Advertising Project, 47% of the ads released by Senator John McCain between June 4 and Oct. 4 were negative and 25% of Senator Barack Obama’s ads were negative.  

With both presidential candidates relying on a quarter of their campaigns being negative, it is necessary to define what a negative ad is. 

Richard A. Curcio, an associate professor of history and political science here on campus said, “Negative ads are when one candidate in a political race runs an advertisement on television or in the mail that is saying something comparing himself or herself with the opponent and it is intended to make the opponent look bad.”  

The definition explains how it works yet does not explain how negative ads capture the attention and votes of potential voters. 

Enriqueta  Aragones, a  professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, describes one explanation: “risk aversion,” in a research report entitled “Negativity Effect and The Emergence of Ideologies.”

 In short, people are more likely to vote against someone than to vote for someone. 

The main issue of negative campaign ads is their ability to misinterpret an opponent’s policy or moral background.  An informed voter should often check the ads with unbiased sources, such as websites that check facts or third parties, not a candidate‘s official webpage.   An example in McCain’s campaign is the ad “Dishonorable.” According to Factcheck.org the ad accuses Obama of saying that the troops in Afghanistan are just “bombing villages and killing civilians.” However, what Obama really said was a criticism of U.S. military strategy and not of American troops.

Senator Obama has also wrongly interpreted Senator McCain’s policies. According to Factcheck.org, Obama accuses McCain of proposing an $880 billion cut from Medicare spending and reducing Medicare benefits in ads like “It gets worse.”  These statements are false. 

Many articles and reports have claimed both candidates base at least 50% of their campaigns on negative or mixed ads; however, Professor Curcio has a different impression. 

    “From    a historical perspective this campaign has been fairly mild,” said Curcio “the most negative ad ever, known by everyone in the political circle, was in 1964; Linden Johnson was the incumbent president and he was beating his opponent very badly. His opponent was Barry Goldwater and Linden Johnson was trying to show that Barry Goldwater was dangerous and if he were president, it would lead to a nuclear war. Therefore, he made this ad and it was called the ‘Daisy’ ad. It shows a cute little girl in a field and she is picking flowers. She picks a daisy and starts pulling off the petals while counting down as she picks them. Then a man’s voice starts counting down and they hit zero. The little girl looks up and huge mushroom cloud blows up, a nuclear bomb, and the screen goes black and it says ‘President Johnson.’

“Politics is combat, a hard sport. I do not think the attacks have been so hard. Honestly, if you want to run for president you cannot have too thin a skin. I can tell you as a historian, presidential elections have been tough,” added Curcio.

This may be a negative campaign and advertisements may be mild or extreme, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the voter to make an educated decision on who he or she believes to be the most qualified to be president.

Voting confusion plagues students

voting-booth

By AARON RILEY
      Staff Writer 

      In an election where one of the larger turnouts of student voters seems feasible, local registrars in Virginia and Colorado have been accused of issuing releases to campuses falsely warning that students who have registered to vote at their college could no longer be listed as dependent on their parents’ tax returns and could even lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance. 

      The situation has incited criticism from Democrats toward El Paso County clerk and recorder Robert Balink, who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention for taking measures that could hinder and discourage student voters, a demographic that is expected to predominantly favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The McClatchy-Tribune News Service reported Sept. 24 that Balink issued a statement saying his office had misinterpreted state law and “mistakenly published information that was incorrect.” The state law in question infers that if a student is listed as dependant on his or her parents’ income tax return, it is a claim that their address is their primary residence. 

      Additionally, students living in dormitories must demonstrate their “intent to claim this locale as their home when they finish school,” said Conway Belangia, director of registration and elections of Greenville County, South Carolina. However, the release stating that there would be dire consequences for university students who registered to vote there was “an error,” along with the assertion that nonnative students cannot vote in the county, according to Belangia. 

      Nevertheless, according to some, the counties’ policies infringe upon students’ voting rights regardless of the validity of Balink’s releases. Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of the Student Public Interest Research Group’s New Voters Project in Washington, states that the counties’ policies are “intimidating” and they “send a message that young voters are not welcome in our democracy just when they’re first enjoying the right to vote.” She continues, “There’s no issue for snowbirds who live in Iowa but fly to Florida for the winter. One demographic group, like students, shouldn’t have to overcome a special hurdle to vote. We impose all the responsibilities of citizenship on students, and we have to provide them with the privileges of citizenship too.”

                     Information gathered from McClatchy Newspapers and the NY Times.