TECHNICIAN
tuesday november
6
2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Despite polls, N.C. remains unclear Jesse Halpern News Editor
More than 13,000 people took advantage of early voting at the Talley Student Center, according to a recent poll released by the North Carolina Public Interest Research Group. After North Carolina’s history as a red state in presidential election was interrupted when it voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, the state has become a swing state worth watching, where every vote counts. Though Gov. Mitt Romney leads Obama by 3.8 percent in Real Clear Politics polls, both candidates’ campaigns are still calling North
Carolina a battleground. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said North Carolina would be won “door to door,” “vote by vote,” during a visit to campus three weeks ago, despite the fact the Romney campaign withdrew its chief spokesperson from the state. Rachel Turner, a junior student senator at N.C. State, told NCPIRG that getting a voting site on campus was a challenge. “Over the summer, the board of elections almost didn’t give us an early voting site, but student government continued to push for it so our students, faculty, and staff had an easy way to vote,” Turner said.
According to a Public Policy poll, North Carolina is currently split evenly between the candidates, which means the state will give someone another slim victory. With the addition of an early voting site on campus, NCPIRG said it hopes that students, faculty and staff who wouldn’t have normally voted took advantage of the conve-
nient location. Rachel Turner thinks they did. “When we compare the 550 who voted in 2008 for the NC State precinct (01-01) to the over 13,000 at the early voting site for Talley in 2012, we can see how invaluable having the early voting
Post-election party to be held in Free Expression Tunnel
GRAPHIC BY NATALIE CLAUNCH
site here has been. It’s great to see young people exercising their right to vote,” Turner told NCPIRG.
CAM Raleigh hosts across the aisle election party Jordan Alsaqa Associate Features Editor
Jake Moser Staff Writer
The N.C. State Round Table is organizing a viewing party in the free expression tunnel where election results will be presented and free food, performances and contests will be open to students. The “Post-Election Paint the Tunnel Party” is sponsored by the N.C. State Round Table— an organization composed of campus and community leaders who discuss issues affecting students, according to Guadalupe Arce-Jimenez , a junior extension education major and one of the event’s organizers. These issues are then presented at the Chancellor’s Liaison meeting with Chancellor Woodson. The idea to hold a University sponsored party was in-part the product of the last presidential election, when a few students
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CHRIS RUPERT/TECHNICIAN
Guadalupe Arce-Jimenez, a junior in extension education, displays an American and a Mexican flag. Arce-Jimenez, an immigrant from Mexico, recently obtained citizenship and cast her first vote as an American citizen.
Casting her ballot without sacrificing her identity Mark Herring Editor-in-Chief
Growing up in a farm-worker family, Guadalupe Arce-Jimenez never expected to go to college or become a United States citizen. Af-
ter casting her vote in the 2012 election, Arce-Jimenez, now a naturalized citizen, said she can now make a difference in a system that at times seemed against her. For many immigrants like ArceJimenez, living in a country where
non-citizens have no voice can be adverse and unwelcoming. She said her parents work from dawn to dusk just to put food on the table. As a
Election night events for the Democrat, Republican and Libertarian parties are all ready to get started as the votes begin to come in. But for those willing to ignore party lines, CAM Raleigh is hosting a bipartisan election night event, which is tied into one of their current exhibits, “Your Land/My Land: Election ‘12.” The exhibit was created by Jonathan Horowitz with the intention of refocusing attention away from strict party lines and back to the underlying issues. The exhibit features two carpets spread across the room, one red and one blue, with each leading to a separate television. The red carpet leads to one showing Fox News while the blue is set under a television with MSNBC. The televisions have been running nonstop since the exhibit’s
VOTING continued page 2
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Access to information renders Ellectoral College obsolete Jessie Halpern News Editor
Young voters have often been characterized as apathetic for believing their votes don’t count, but an analysis of the Electoral College system reveals that young voters aren’t necessarily incorrect. Originally formed in 1804, the Electoral College was established in Article II of the Constitution to prevent an unfair election. In a time when the peoples’ knowledge was determined by status, gender and
location, the system made sense. Voters of the 19th century could easily be misinformed or persuaded to vote a certain way. The Electoral College was designed so that each state would receive a certain number of electors to vote on the peoples’ behalf, given both the data from the popular vote and the access to unbiased information. More than 200 years have passed since the system’s birth, and now voters live in a world where nearly everyone has access to information on the candidates, regardless of so-
cial factors. Though the Electoral College has not been greatly protested, its flaws have become obvious. In the 2000 election Al Gore won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote and did not assume the role of president despite the fact that the American people chose him. Now, the Electoral College system has made it so that candidates are less concerned with winning individual votes and focus on winning over states, specifically the following 12: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. According to the U.S. Electoral College website, there are 538 total votes in the Electoral College—a candidate needs a majority of these votes to win the election. Because of the system’s structure, it is possible for a candidate to be elected by winning over the above states, even if they didn’t get any votes in the other 39. Michael Cobb, associate professor of public and international affairs, said he thinks abolishing the system
would help candidates focus more on the voters, though that option brings with it a new set of equality issues. “That might bring a new bias of ignoring smaller areas with fewer voters,” Cobb said. “There’s no perfect way to design it but there are a few ways to move away from making states the unit of aggregation. I’m comfortable in this day and age with direct election of the president by popular vote.”
insidetechnician viewpoint features classifieds sports
Prying up the boards of a platform See page 3.
Another animated triumph for Disney See page 5.
student tee shirt design contest
Creators make a comic book in a day
Soccer falls short in ACCs See page 8.
See page 6.
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