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Low turnout expected for Feb. 2 primary NICK QUIGLEY Daily Egyptian
at SIUC and the other member attends John A. Logan College. Some of the cyclists joining the 2010 ride have very little biking experience. Alex Pearlman, a junior studying marketing, said he joined the team after Ferrell described his previous cross-country experience to him. “I viewed cycling as a way to get around town from time to time, but never really as a hobby,� Pearlman said. “Joe came back and said the trip was awesome and said he would be doing it again this year, but this time it was for MS. He basically convinced me to go.� Pearlman said he has ridden his bike around town but has never gone on any distance rides. This will be his longest trip ever, spanning 2,878 miles.
Experts expect turnout for the 2010 primaries to be less than stellar. A little more than 1.6 million voters turned out for the 2006 Illinois primary, according to a report by D.C.-based American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate — and pundits such as Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business predict those numbers will stay about the same, with fewer than 1 million voters turning out for the Democrats. Indifference that has existed since the U.S.’s 1910 decision to shift the balance of primary voting power from party bosses to voters is mainly to blame, said Dr. Charlie Leonard, a visiting professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The unintended consequence of that reform was low voter turnout, he added. “People are generally uninterested in primaries,� Leonard said. “Turnout is low, and that’s a stable phenomena.� Hinz wrote Jan. 4 that he also expects “low to extremely low voter turnout.� Ryan Mathews, a freshman from Alton studying radiology, said despite being registered to vote, he won’t be voting tomorrow. “I don’t really know where to vote around here,� he said. “Honestly, politics don’t really interest me.� According to http://www.evoter. com, there are more than 7,000 Illinois primary election candidates for 2010, with more than 11,000 polling places. Despite this, Leonard feels voters have their attention directed elsewhere. “A lot of people are just now putting away their Christmas decorations, much less focusing on electoral politics,� he said. Mikeya Bates, a sophomore from Chicago studying marketing, feels the primaries are important and plans on voting. “The people you vote for in the primaries are the people you’ll have to end up voting for in the general election,� she said.
Please see RIDE | 7
Please see PRIMARIES | 7
JULIA RENDLEMAN | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Orion Fiorino, 10, of Makanda, takes advantage of the snow Saturday to sled on a hill near the SIU Arena. “This is one of the best spots to sled,� Fiorino said. Carbondale received between six and eight inches of snow over the weekend – the most the area has seen since December 2004, said Jayson Wilson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. Temperatures will warm up by mid-week, but the melting snow shouldn’t cause any flooding, Wilson said. The next weather system will come this weekend and bring only rain, he said.
Fundraising for cross-country bike ride, multiple sclerosis research begins today DEREK ROBBINS Daily Egyptian For Ryan Ferrell, the only difficult thing about traveling across the country on a bicycle is acquiring the money to do so. The money he needs is not just to support his ride across the United States, he said. Ferrell, a junior at Southern Illinois University Carbondale studying university studies, plans to lead a group of seven cyclists from southern Illinois on a crosscountry bike ride from Richmond, Va., to San Francisco starting June 1, to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. They will ride as part of a national group called “Bike the US for MS,� he said. The fundraising for the ride begins today. The big prize will be a pair of bikes donated by Phoenix Cycles and the Bike Surgeon, which are on display in the Recreation Center, Ferrell said. Raffle tickets cost $10 a piece and can be purchased at both stores. The prize drawing will be Feb. 16 at Tres Hombres in Carbondale, he said. “Just today, we shoveled snow for people around town and told them about the trip and asked
them to support us,� Ferrell said. “We hope to gather up $3,000 for each rider by the end of our fundraising, and we’ll do whatever we can to get it.� Ferrell said 65 percent of their fundraising efforts will go toward MS research, and the remaining 35 percent will go to supply the cyclists for the duration of the trip. The money they use for the trip goes into lodging fees as well as covering the trip’s food costs. Ferrell said there will be a van that travels the route with them and will store the food the cyclists need, most of which they will make themselves. The journey across the United States is not something new to Ferrell. He said last year he went on the same trip across the country for leisure, during which he met up with the Bike the US for MS people. “It was interesting, we were doing the trip at the same time as Donald (Fraser, director of “Bike the US for MS�),� Ferrell said. “We rode with them for several days and he asked me if I would like to lead the southern Illinois branch and I jumped at the opportunity.� Ferrell said at first the trip across the United States was diffi-
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t’s not really as grueling as you think it is. When all you do during a day is ride your bike, going 60 or 70 miles in a day is very doable. The most daunting thing about the journey is the idea of the journey.
— Geordie Dye senior studying business management
cult, but once he got used to riding for up to 10 hours a day, it became progressively easier. Geordie Dye, a senior studying business management who went on the trip with Ferrell last year, said he had only been cycling for two years prior to the cross-country excursion. “Until you do it, you think it’s crazier than it really is,� Dye said. “It’s not really as grueling as you think it is. When all you do during a day is ride your bike, going 60 or 70 miles in a day is very doable. The most daunting thing about the journey is the idea of the journey.� Recruiting cyclists to join the group was not as difficult as most people might imagine, Dye said. All seven current members were friends with Ferrell before he started recruiting for the trip. Six of the members are students