election

Why Your Vote Counted More Than You Think

Alma Aldrich — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:13:40 -0500

Election Day is almost a month behind us, and a healthy majority of the country — even healthier in Tompkins County — has been celebrating the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama. Still, I was amazed how many Cornell students I spoke with on Nov. 4, who did not vote. In such a historical election, I cannot understand how this is possible. For those people who used the excuse "my vote doesn't count in liberal Ithaca, New York" — you were wrong. Here is why:

This year in Tompkins County, two U.S. House of Representatives seats were up for election, as well as seats in the State Senate and State Assembly. Thanks to the interesting shape of the district we are located in, several seats held close elections.

Interview with Rep. Bob Filner

David Brodnick — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:18:17 -0500

[video]

Cornellians Ponder Future of Republican Party

Ben Gitlin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As Barack Obama transitions into his first presidential term, he will be backed by an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress including the addition of at least five new Democratic seats in the Senate and at least 20 in the House. A few weeks after the election, Republican officials remain busy speculating about where they went wrong and which direction they need to move toward in the future.

Most Republican leaders blame the losses on their inability to build a cohesive platform that could resonate with a more diverse group of voters than just the party’s base. The elections exposed the strong divide between the different factions within the party, specifically between the fiscal and social conservatives.

Ithacans Protest Proposition 8

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The dark gray of a typical Ithacan overcast sky contrasted sharply Saturday afternoon with the rainbow-hued umbrellas held by community members and students who were assembled on the Commons to protest Proposition 8, as well as Propositions 2 and 102, which ban marriage between same sex couples.

The protest was organized by Lambda, Cornell Law’s LGBT and ally group, but was meant to be part of Join the Impact, a movement created in the days following Election Day to protest Proposition 8. Saturday, people from across the country held coordinated protests at 1:30 p.m. According to the Join the Impact website, the combined protests included over 1 million people in 300 cities in the United States, as well as in 10 other countries.

C.U. Alums Win 5 Seats in House, 1 in N.Y. State Senate

Cameron Breen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In the weeks leading up to the election, the Cornell community watched Keith Olbermann ’79 lead MSNBC’s television coverage, read the blogs of Ann Coulter ’84 and watched Bill Maher ’78 on HBO and live in Barton Hall. And when it came time for Election Day, C.U. saw its alumni rise to the top, winning coveted seats in public offices.

Last week’s election ballots featured a slew of Cornell alumni, and many of them won the races they ran in. Cornell graduates won five seats in the House of Representatives and one seat in the New York State Senate.

Presidency Not Only Issue: Ballot Measures Reassessed

Venus Wu — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

On Nov. 4, voting was a particularly arduous task in Colorado. Apart from choosing the next president of the United States, as well as Senators and House Representatives, Coloradans were also asked to vote on a grand total of 14 ballot measures.

Across the nation, 153 ballot initiatives were presented to voters in this year’s election. Apart from Colorado, the ballots of a few other states were also crowded with up to 12 questions. While it is possible that voters may get worn out by the seemingly never-ending list of questions, Prof. Josh Chafetz, law, believes voters can still make sensible choices.

Cornellian Political Views Differ From Those of Swing State Students

Sun Staff — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:51:55 -0400

A recent collaboration between the Cornell Survey Research Institute, UWIRE, CBS and the Chronicle of Higher Education produced a study comparing Cornell students’s political views with those of college-aged students in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Colorado.

ILR Hosts Mock Presidential Election, Debate

Brendan Doyle — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Polls for the School of Industrial and Labor Relation’s 2008 mock presidential election opened yesterday, giving ILR students a preview of how their colleagues will be voting come Nov. 4. The mock election was organized by “Educate for ’08,” a non-partisan group within ILR whose goals include running “get out the vote” drives and informing the campus community of relevant issues.

In addition, volunteer ILR students represented the positions of candidates McCain and Obama on five major issues yesterday in Ives Hall during ILR Educates for 2008, a mock debate sponsored by the ILR Student Government Association, the ILR Women’s Caucus, the Minority ILR Student Organization and Educate for ’08.

Professors Analyze Role of Minorities in U.S. Elections

Byungkwan Park — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Last night in Donlon Hall, Prof. N’Dri Assie-Lumumba, Africana studies, and Prof. Robert Odawi Porter, law at Syracuse University, presented international and indigenous perspectives on this year’s presidential election. The event, “Politics in Context: Who Came First?,” was part of the “Educate the Vote!” series.

Assie-Lumumba focused on how the American presidential election is viewed internationally.

According to Assie-Lumumba, one’s status as a minority arises from different social, economical and historical factors that must be questioned and challenged. In addition, although issues of welfare and poverty are often associated with the black population in America, these social issues concern all Americans, not only the minorities, she said.

Anal Sex, Making It Work, and Other Things Tim Gunn Likes

Rabia Muqaddam and Rachel Gevirtz — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We sat outside CTB, incognito, each wrapped in blankets and R’s face masked by her fedora —

R: It’s a “lady hat!”

— sipping our espressos, discussing the upcoming election, Proust, the human condition and Project Runway. R and R’s political discussions never seem to result in much r-and-r, and this instance was no different.

R: You don’t have to hold me down and spray Fantastik in my mouth every time.

R: That last time was an accident.

Talk Examines Race, Gender Bias in Election

Brian Karlovitz — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Prof. Jeff Rachlinski, law, and Greg Parks, law ’08, discussed the role of unconscious race and gender biases in the presidential race yesterday in Sage Chapel. Such implicit biases affect the voting process, they said.

“Although some Americans certainly are explicitly biased when it comes to race and gender, such individuals constitute a very small percentage of voters and it is our view that implicit or unconscious bias is the far bigger problem,” Rachlinski said.

Rachlinski explained that there are two types of voting — rationally and intuitively. “Whereas rational voting seems to override unconscious bias, intuitive voting is usually in line with it,” he said.

Reporting From the Media Room

Ben Birnbaum — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Watching the third and final presidential debate from the Media room at Hofstra University was like being in a gym lined with dozens of rows of tables spanning the length of the room, each equipped with several phones, extension cords, and high-definition televisions.

In the hours leading up to the main event, politicians and media members milled about — eating, schmoozing, and sporting their souvenir Hofstra mugs. As Bob Schieffer took the stage and said a few words to the audience — “welcome all, turn off your cell phones and shut up during the debate” — the media members scurried to their seats and began typing away.

The reaction in the room was fairly muted until the fifteenth shout-out to “Joe the plumber,” which drew a chorus of hearty laughter.

McCain and Obama Meet in Round 3

Sarah Singer — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — The high security fortress known as Hofstra University was brimming with energy yesterday in preparation for the third and final presidential debate. Barricaded off by the Secret Service, orange parking cones, police cars and officers patrolling the crowds on horses, the outwardly militant environment conveyed a strong message: no messing around on debate day.

Hello from Hofstra U.

Sarah Singer — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:51:59 -0400

Ready to Go: Student supporters of candidate John McCain gather behind a Fox 5 News reporter during a live broadcast.Greetings from Hofstra University, the site of the third and final presidential debate. Photo Editor Jenn Vargas and I arrived early this morning, eager to get a look at the campus preparing to host one of the most heated discussions in history. In the aftermath of the McCain campaign’s controversial accusations of Obama, and against the backdrop of an increasingly fragile economy, students and mainstream media outlets are gearing up for a talk that can influence the crucial November 4th vote.

Collegetown Bars Open for Presidential Debate

Michael Stratford — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Although last night’s presidential debate may not have provided as much fodder for late night comedians as last week’s vice presidential showdown, debate viewers at Pixel certainly found plenty of moments to laugh at.

The crowd of about 35 who had gathered at the Dryden Road bar last night clapped, jeered, laughed and booed throughout the 90-minute town-hall style forum between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.), in Nashville, Tenn.

Challenger to Hinchey for Congress Seat Visits Cornell

Ben Eisen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

George Phillips had no idea that he wanted to go into politics until he started college. While at Villanova University, he took a variety of political science classes, and through the office of Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) worked on issues of human trafficking and refugee safety in Africa.

Now on unpaid leave from his job as a history teacher at Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, Phillips is running for a Congressional Seat in the 22nd District, which includes much of the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes Regions. A member of the Republican Party, he is running against eight-term incumbent Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.).

This election season marks the first time since 2004 that Hinchey has had an opponent.

The Sound of Silence

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The most shocking moment of Friday’s presidential debate wasn’t when Barack Obama mocked John McCain for refusing diplomatic contact with Spain or even when the candidates compared bracelets they had received on the campaign trail. For the most part, the candidates reiterated their well-known positions on Iraq, Afghanistan and taxes without much error. Instead, the most shocking part of Friday’s debate was how little the candidates talked about the massive economic bailout plan that fell apart on Thursday.

QUICK TAKES ’08: The candidates, the drinking games and last week’s debate

Sun Staff — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Analysis of the Presidential Drinking Game — er, Debate

I received an email the other day that stated the following:

“If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000.

With AIG, you would have less than $15 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for aluminum recycling, you would have $214 cash.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.”

N.Y. Registration: Reducing Vote’s Impact?

Brian Karlovitz — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The voter registration tables provided by the Cornell Democrats and College Republicans are a familiar sight to most Cornellians, and many feel that students helping other students “get out the vote” is a positive service to the campus community. But when out-of-state students register to vote in Tompkins County, are they potentially diminishing their political power? Are they affecting campaign strategies and election outcomes?

Elizabeth W. Kree, co-commissioner of the Tompkins County Board of Elections, explained that New York State law has given college students the right to register to vote using their college addresses since the mid-1980s. However, to the politically active on campus, the decision of out-of-staters to vote in-state has a strategic motive.

The Type-Off Goes National

Munier Salem — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:54:27 -0400

Graphic design has always eeked its way into presidential campaigns. Many remember the famous analysis of the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards logos which analyzed everything from the choice of fonts (obnoxiously bolded sans serif vs. light highbrow serif) to the placement of the flags (firmly anchored vs. flying off the page). All this seemed to confirm Bush’s brawny, strength-obsessed politics, versus the perception of Kerry as an elite weakling.