Tuesday, Mar 10, 2020
SF STATE’S STUDENT-RUN PUBLICATION SINCE 1927
VOLUME 110, ISSUE 8
CAMPUS CLOSED
Ineligible voters go voiceless in 2020 primaries
A&E
the democratic process. “The importance of being able to vote is to have my voice heard because there are certain issues in my community that I care about that I don’t have a say in. Such as, for example, you got prop 13 coming up on this [ballot] for the state on funding our schools,” Vasquez said. He thinks that not having a voice while paying taxes is not democracy.
SPORTS
O
f San Francisco’s 503,899 registered voters, only 275,200 people voted in the March 3 primary election. J Vasquez is a formerly incarcerated student and has been at SF State for two semesters now. Vasquez stated that he doesn’t use his first name because it’s his government name
and identifies more with the letter “J” alone. Vasquez, a sociology major and criminal justice minor, will be on parole for a minimum of five years. Due to his parole status, Vasquez is not eligible to vote. While roughly half of San Francisco’s eligible voters regularly choose not to participate, people like Vasquez lament their exclusion from
CITY
JACQUELYN MORENO JMORENO18@MAIL.SFSU.EDU
“This country was founded on the principle of being able to have a voice and I pay taxes. And so, you know, the whole taxation without representation applies to me, which was important to the founding fathers of this country on why they fought to establish this so called democracy was not a democracy, Vasquez said. Director of Project Rebound, Jason CONTINUED ON PAGE 2