 "Photo:")
Vote here, at Auraria, because we got ourselves a polling station baby!
UCD's own Student Government Association (SGA) should give itself a giant pat on the back, especially Melanie Gann and Colin Rose, whose efforts over the summer have finally paid off: the Auraria Campus has been selected to be a polling station for the 2006 election. Eye sat down with Gann, who was outside getting students registered to vote, to talk about the process and what led up to it. According to Gann, it all started with the idea of getting students' voices heard. Having a polling station on campus would give students a voice and politicians would pay attention. Because there are a lot of students on campus all day, it made sense to provide an easy, convenient way for them to vote.
But it's been a long process, starting in July. Gann and others attended meetings of the Election Commission and began talking with members of the commission. They managed to get Auraria as the 48th and last polling station, and after a series of inspections to ensure that Auraria was in compliance with ADA regulations, it was approved as a polling station. This means that, on Election Day, look no further than your friendly neighborhood campus to vote.
Keep a few things in mind, though. You have to be registered to vote in Denver to vote at this polling station. Also, bring your driver's license or Colorado ID; you'll have to present one of these in order to vote. And if you're not registered, do it. You must register by Oct. 10 in order to vote in this year's election. UCDSGA and the New Voter's Project have teamed up to get students registered before the deadline. If you'd like to register, head down to the North Classroom on Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., the flagpole area on Thursday at the same times, or, if you live at the Regency, register there from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you don't do it this way, you may have to face lines, screaming children and body odor at the DMV to get yourself registered. And Eye do not recommend going to the DMV for anything (unless you absolutely must).
Although this has been headed up by UCD Student Government, there has been support from the other institutions' SGAs and student life offices.
In 2004, the youth vote increased by 11 percent, fighting the overall decline that's been going on since 1972, totaling a 16 percent drop. The 2004 election saw 47 percent of 18 to 24 year olds voting, and 66 percent of citizens 25 and older. Single young people, especially women, are more likely to vote than married young people, and in 2004, the single young women's vote went up about a third, or 12 percentage points, from the 2000 turnout. But in Colorado, only 8 percent of 18 to 24 year olds voted.
According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, much of the increase in young voter turnout is due to an increase in voting by young African Americans. The voter turnout for African Americans fell off in the 1988 election, and has remained steady since, until the 2004 election, in which 47 percent of African American young people voted - only 2.5 percentage points below the young white voter turnout. And although this might be a mid-term election, that bodes well for African American youth, who were more likely to vote in 2002 than any other race.
It's not a surprise that Colorado will be a battleground this year, with democrats and republicans vying for hotly contested spots in Congress. And Bill Ritter is facing off against Bob Beauprez, and if you've seen the ads on television, you know there's no love lost between the two. According to the Washington Post, this Colorado election is one of the key elections around the country this year.
Beauprez is noted for his firm stance against illegal immigration, and might be remembered by others for his comment on Colorado Public Radio that abortion rates are nearly 70 percent in the black community. Many black legislators denounced his comments, responding by saying that abortion rates in the African American community are nowhere near that high.
Ritter, once the D.A. of Denver, has been attacked as being too soft on crime, and ads targeting the lawyer have denounced his record because he offered plea bargains in 97 percent of his cases. On his website, Beauprez criticizes Ritter for allowing 49,492 felons walk without jail time. But the ad you might have seen with a tearful mother saying Ritter let her daughter's killer, a hit and run driver, off with eight months in prison - that wasn't from Beauprez's camp. That ad came from Coloradans for Justice.
According to the Reality Check section of CBS News 4 (www.cbs4denver.com) Coloradans for Justice's director, Alan Philp, is also the executive director of the Trailhead Group, which was formed by current Governor Bill Owens. The ad claims that Ritter offered the driver, Shelia Towns, a habitual drug offender, a plea bargain in the case. But CBS news reporter Raj Chohan points out conflicting witness statements: that there was no way to verify if Towns had intoxicants in her body because she wasn't arrested until two days later, and it is uncertain as to whether the victims were walking against the flow of traffic. These statements contributed to the plea decision made in the case. For anyone who watches "Law & Order," you know there are a lot of factors that contribute to whether or not a D.A. will offer a plea bargain, and why.
But Eye am not here to tell you who to vote for. Go to their websites (www.bobbeauprez.com and www.ritterforgovernor.com) to read about where they stand on higher education other issues and each other.
Be the first to comment on this article!