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October 12, 2004
editorial
Most weeks, this little corner of the Oracle is reserved for unapologetic Hamline-bashing. The university has long proven to be an almost inexhaustible source of gripes and complaints. However, in a flash of lateral, outside-the-box thinking, it occurred to us - what if we found something at Hamline worthy of praise?
After wrestling with this radical new worldview, we settled down and thought about the incredible statistics coming from Sharon Jaffe’s Election Action Network project. According to surveys sponsored by the Election Action Network and conducted by Hamline faculty, 81 percent of Hamline CLA students from Minnesota are registered to vote.
Sixty-eight percent of students from other states are also registered, with 60 percent already in possession of their absentee ballots. The Hamline community should feel particularly proud of these numbers, considering how notoriously apathetic the 18-24 demographic is when it comes to voting. In the last presidential election, only 32 percent of this demographic showed up to vote.
Every college is required by law to make attempts at registering their student body, but the statistics listed show that Election Action Network isn’t just making a token effort - they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure they reach as many students as possible before election day. Whether it be tabling outside heavily trafficked areas, or walking door-to-door collecting registrations, they have overlooked no tactic and spared no effort to make sure that students are prepared to vote on Nov. 2. Additionally, they are holding discussion events around the presidential and VP debates to help get the student body informed about the issues.
Of course, there is still plenty more to do in the weeks leading up to the election. According to the Election Action Network’s survey, 536 students don’t know where their polling place is. But don’t worry, the Election Action Network isn’t about to let this problem slide by them - they will soon be conducting a door-knocking campaign with maps of polling places, as well as providing rides to the polls on election day.
Many different people on campus have contributed to the network’s success, from political science professor David Kirchner creating maps to polling locations, to HUSC vice president Mike Pesko e-mailing students and offering information on how to receive absentee ballots.
And, of course, none of this work would be possible without the leadership of Sharon Jaffe.
What all these people have in common is recognizing that apathy is not a viable option when it comes to politics, especially in this election cycle. It is the 18- to 24-year-olds who are fighting and dying in America’s open-ended “war on terror.” It is 18- to 24-year-olds who are paying into a Social Security fund that will, in all likelihood, be bankrupt by the time they are old enough to qualify for benefits. It is 18- to 24-year-olds who will soon be entering a job market increasingly bereft of secure positions with adequate benefits and pay.
We commend the Election Action Network for taking a proactive approach toward voter registration.
Posted by msveum at October 12, 2004 11:22 AM
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