CONCERT CHOSEN
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Country duo Thompson Square will perform at Eastern for this year’s Spring concert. Tickets go on sale Monday.
The Eastern baseball team travels for its 20th straight road game against Southern Illinois-Carbondale.
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Dai ly Eastern News
THE
W W W .DA IL Y E A S T E RNN E W S . C O M
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
VOL. 98 | NO. 117
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
Primary polls open for voting By Michael Spencer City Editor | @tmskeeper Polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday for the 2014 primary that will see a new general assembly representative selected for the 110th district, the slate of governor candidates for the gubernatorial election finalized and the passage or failure of a school facilities tax referendum. Additionally, local precinct committee members, Republican candidates for the U.S. senate seat and the field of Republican sheriff candidates will be selected. Polls will close at 7 p.m. with results to come later in the evening. General Assembly Representative race The new representative will be selected in the primary from a field of three Republicans who will run unopposed by a Democrat for the general election in November. Darrell Cox, Kevin Garner and Reggie Phillips will each contend for the spot from similar ideological positions. On the topic of pension reform, the candidates said the state should hold up its end of the bargain with state employees. Cox, the out-going sheriff, said that he would support legislation to guarantee pension benefits for current employees but to restructure the plan for all new employees. Each candidate supports term limits and some form of tax reform that will aim at making Illinois more hospitable to businesses. Garner, a service manager at LD Mechanical, said a broader application of the sales tax would help share the burden of tax revenues. Phillips, a local businessman, said he would work to sunset the corporate sales tax to draw jobs to Illinois. Cox advocates for a forensic audit of the state’s finances to make sure that tax dollars are being put to work effectively while seeking a balanced budget which he said is central to his current position as sheriff. Sales Tax Referendum Voters will decide whether or not to impose a sales tax Tuesday that would go toward funding facilities projects for schools across Coles County. In December, the Charleston school board joined others from around the county to propose the tax that can only be used to fund building projects in the Charleston school district.
DISTRICT 110 LOCATION
Places to vote in Charleston
Precincts
CUSD #1, School Administration Office, 410 W. Polk Ave.
1 & 12
St. Charles Catholic Church, 921 Madison Ave.
2&4
Salisbury Church, 2350 Madison Ave.
3, 5 & 13
Masonic Temple, 651 W. Lincoln Ave.
6&8
First Baptist Church, 2800 University Drive
10 & 11
Newman Catholic Center, 500 Roosevelt Ave.
14,15, 18 & 19
University Union, Bridge Lounge, Eastern Illinois University16
& 17
Gr aphic by Joanna LEighton
Jim Littleford, the Charleston superintendent of schools, said the referendum is something each school is in need of while opposition groups, such as the Coles Citizens for Responsible Education warn that districts would have the chance to increase property taxes if sales tax revenues falls short of the
district’s projected totals. Les Combs, the co-chair for the organization said the referendum offers a “blank check” for property taxes. Littleford said there is a “cushion” already in place because the district would only be able to dip into
property taxes if revenues missed the projected bond total by 80 percent. Combs and Littleford both said there is no way to guarantee property taxes would not be needed in the future. POLLS, page 5
Students lack interest in primary elections By Jarad Jarmon Associate News Editor | @JJarmonReporter Despite the state primaries looming ahead, some students said they lacked interest or knowledge of the candidates or the polls Tuesday. Some students like Brittany Halliday, a junior special and elementary education major, and Joy Carpenter, a sophomore biology, said they believed the university was in a bubble of sorts, closed off from most politics and news. “They don’t really pay attention to the primaries. I know I don’t,” Carpenter said. Halliday agreed. She said students are focused on schoolwork and their lives on campus. “We are in such a small bubble that we don’t realize how much it impacts us,” Hal-
liday said. “We are so concerned about our grades, our midterms and our finals.” Elizabeth Romang, a freshman undecided major, said this is one of the reasons students, including herself, have not been paying attention to the elections. Coming right off of midterms, it hasn’t crossed many of the student’s minds, she said. Carpenter also said an expected lack of student voter turnout may be because of the lack of education at the school. She said she has not seen many talking about it on campus. Jessie Kulek, a junior history major, agreed. She said while there have been registration drives presented across the campus, she has not seen much else on campus to notify the students of the coming primaries and elections. Student Body President Kaylia Eskew said
there is not much excuse to been uninformed, though. “I think we are all adults and students kind of need to take responsibility and really need to reach out an do their own work,” Eskew said. “No one is going to spoon feed you.” Halliday said while it is important to vote, she hopes students and community members in general do not go to the polls blindly. She said if she didn’t have her dad inform her of the candidates and their stances she would not vote. She added she did not want to vote for someone who would ultimately be against her interest. Despite student apathy towards voting, Kulek said it does not have anything to do with the person’s age. Even though much of her generation has not proven themselves, there are still a lot who are active and vote.
“I don’t think it is true that young people don’t care,” Kulek said. “I have a lot of friends who are very active in sharing their views on Facebook.” She added many of her friends have supported specific mayors during the election in 2013. While there is a lack of interest in voting, many students still find voting important but find their lives to busy to focus on the issues and make and educated decision. Romang said it still effects the students whether they believe it or not, they just do not see it as a task worth their time. Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or jsjarmon@eiu.edu.