FROM “MARRY ME” TO MARY JANE
POLITICAL U: ELECTION RESULTS 2012
By Mende Smith
College-aged Americans have spoken for their views on Federal elections, State initiatives, and everything from “Marry Me” to Mary Jane. This is my wrap up session of Election Results 2012
Santa Monica Sitting in her Santa Monica Calif. campaign headquarters on Nov. 6., Janet Lee claps a hand over her mouth as she peers into her laptop screen. Her cellphone rumbles on the desk as she reads a farewell message from one of her volunteers. She answers with a single word “V I C T O R Y” to my cell from a thousand miles away. In the nearly empty terminal of the Burbank Airport we text back and forth—hoorays and woo hoo! Lee, 52, is a retired schoolteacher living in California. For the past eighteen months she and her husband Phil—also retired, have both volunteered for Obama in the battleground states of California and Nevada. “I am going to keep holding things together at our office here at home, I bet we get through to a thousand new voters today,” Lee says. “ You kids are awesome for coming in for this! You kids can have a doughnut or get a bagel while you are calling today, there is a smorgasbord for the volunteers.” By Kids, she means me and the other four people who happen to be assigned to the precinct’s phone bank in this particular field office. As a first-timer in that precinct, I was unaware that I would be calling three hundred people from my own cell phone. That is the epitome of grass roots canvassing. No parachute. No random dialing, just my voice and twenty voter’s names per page to fire up for California. Ella is a thirty-year veteran phone banker and lifelong Democrat. She sits at the end of a long table, deep in a phone call. She serves as “phone buddy” for people who are new to the cause. She wraps it up the same way, every time. “Yes on prop 30, No on 32. Tell them they matter to Mr. Obama.” Slurping down a cup of room-temperature coffee, I dunked into the task at hand. I dialed the first voter Helen Poole, 62, from my unblocked number. Leaving positive messages in answering machines was exciting enough; I left nearly 80 that day. But
Helen actually answered her phone. Of all the calls I did make that day, Mrs. Poole’s was my favorite. Helen has lived in her house in Manhattan Beach for 30 years. We spoke about the weather and all the rain in Washington. She said that she was a lucky lady and particularly blessed with good health. A grandmother of 3 who voted for President Obama this year in her very first election ever, she said she has lived in the United States all of her life and never voted. She said her neighbor Annabelle kept talking to her about the President and convinced her she must vote, she says, “for the grandchildren.” Those of us tracking multiple polling stats kept up with our respective office campaigns through tweets and texts up to Election Day, as of 3 p.m. on the first and long-awaited Tuesday of November, 64 percent of registered voters had already cast their ballots. Burbank The man in the gray business suit sitting beside me looks despondently at the muted television on the terminal wall—obviously not an Obama fan—while the woman across the aisle chatters in Spanish to the chubby baby in her arms with one eye on the screen and a widening grin. My plane boards in 20 minutes. In the air I, and hopefully, the chubby baby will sleep. It was a bummer that I was unable to stay for a champagne shot with the rest of the Santa Monica field office, and also a bummer that I was a time zone away from celebrating with my own local campaigners. I felt empty and a little sad as the only victory lap I was getting tonight was in the plane between Burbank and Utah. I am the only one of the weekly volunteers in the Battleground California Campaign who is returning to my University campus in Central Washington. For the past eight days, I have made hundreds of phone calls, followed twitter feeds, phone-banked interviews and registered voters. “A hard fought win,” says the L.A times, “to four more years” I stream election results video on my IPhone while I wait for a moonlit flight. Just as my twitter feed explodes, a tear comes to my eye. President Barack Obama accepted a second term as the nation’s 44th president tonight in a Chicago speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning. He said: “Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. Our long campaign is now over. And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, and I have learned from you and you have made me a better president…Tonight, you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours.”
Now the agenda of his second term is focused on securing the support of traditional Democratic allies — minorities, gays, young people, seniors — rather than on making new friends, which was the customary approach he took on the campaign trail in 2008, when millions of first-time voters cast their ballots for his promise of change, mere weeks into the last push for the White House. Waving flags of “Hope” for a more equal, more livable, more honorable America. President Barack Obama has been declared the winner of Florida in Tuesday's election, some six days later, according to the Associated Press. The total—from the final state to report a winner—gives Obama a cumulative Electoral College count of 332 to 206 over Mitt Romney.
Chicago One thing is certain, react how you may to the fact that a new millennium calls on the talents, passion and skills of America’s pre-grads and college students—like it or not. According to Jim Allen, a spokesperson for the Chicago Elections Board, credits the young people of Chicago as our country's greatest resource. Allen says that owing to the efforts of students aged 18-24; the ballots are counted speedily and efficiently. “Chicago is different than most cities,” Allen says. “ We rely heavily on students to serve as judges and technical administrators and they tend to perform well as what used to be called polling-place administrators. Now they are serving as Mobile-Polling Administrators across our counties. (MPAs).” Allen says that the city rose to the occasion to recruit teens and college students in 2006, when older volunteers were struggling with newer polling equipment. “In 2006, we found that judges, particularly those without skills to deal with the new technology, were slowing down our polling results.” Allen says. “Younger MPAs were the key to turning around that ship. This year, we have 1800 high school students and another 1000 college-aged volunteers serving as counters and admins.” Due to the efforts of young volunteers in the 2012 Election, Allen said Chicago had 90 % of ballots counted before the ten o’clock news on Election Day. Seattle Here in Washington, in even the suburban counties, older volunteers clocked hundreds of hours for the candidates and the political theatre to continue. According to Nate Valasquez, King County Board of Elections spokesperson, it may be that Washingtonians are a bit more tech-savvy than their Chicagoan counterparts— and it is a good thing too.
“Washington State’s reformed election system features mail-in ballots and so we do not have the same necessity for volunteers,” Valasquez says. “It is great that people get involved during elections or any time they feel moved to, but in Washington we are prepared to meet our voter’s needs with a staff of paid employees.” In Washington State, of the three universities polled, Central Washington University, University of Washington, and Evergreen State College, less than 4 % of enrolled college students admitted to actively volunteering for the 2012 election, or any election for that matter. Wandering around the U of W campus on Nov. 7, one student polled said he had to complete Community Service for a class civics project— saying that he considered it better than pushing a broom on the street or shoveling trash into plastic bags with non-violent offenders. Another said she was going to be getting more friends involved in 2016 “in case Romney ran again.” It can be argued that in King and neighboring counties in Washington, most college students get an “F” for political support activities. Many said they voted only because it was a “major” election and few added that the option to legalize marijuana and that supporting gay marriage was worth filling out a mail-in ballot for. Ellensburg At the local Republican Headquarters on Main Street in our college town, there are traces of campaign posters still stuck to the storefront windows. Rob McKenna (GOP) lost the Governor’s race to Yakima native Jay Inslee by what local officials called a “slim victory.” One victory for local Republicans in Central Washington was a win for CWU Professor Matt Manweller, a first-time candidate for State Representative. Manweller won Bill Hinkle’s seat by a “landslide” over Democratic unknown Kaj Selmann—even in the wake of recent character assassination. The Republican favorite, Jim Dennison lost to incumbent and former Gov. Gregoire-appointed Judge Fran Chmelewski in a local judicial race.
Graphic courtesy: Political Science & Politics Journal
The LGBT Vote It's estimated that only about 4 percent of the American population identifies as LGBT, and in national elections they nearly always vote Democratic. So I asked a few students from within the LGBT community what they thought about the importance of civic engagement and the impact of the LGBT vote. Many here on our campus did not say why they supported prop 74. Jamie Klouse, senior English, says that she feels there was certainly an impact on Election 2012, but not in the way we might expect. She feels that the support for same-sex marriage came from the family and friends of the LGBTs. “I think the initiatives in [Washington] proved that taking a stand on the left side of an issue is just a valid way for politicians to energize their base as taking a stand on the right.” Statistically, studies have shown that in all 50 states gays and lesbians tend to be more active civically and politically than other Americans. Decriminalization of Marijuana The voters have approved Initiative 502. In just 12 months from now—once licenses have begun to be issued to growers and sellers, it will be legal for those 21 or older to purchase up to one ounce of marijuana in Washington state. Many locals believe that the passage of this initiative is based on non-violent arrest management and the substantial tax revenues the legal sale of marijuana to adults will pool for State revenue. Katie Larsen, 2012 CWU Alum voted for prop 502, she says, “Because it is a waste of space and money.” Larsen believes that it is time to let the stoners out of jail. “I think people that were just smoking or carrying marijuana should be freed,” Larsen says, “So more room can be made [in jail] for rapists, murderers and child molesters.”
The two most-favored propositions on the Washington ballot passed overwhelmingly. Marijuana is one step closer to legalization and allowed for recreational use—prone to a new use tax and following distribution by licensed collectives and Prop 74—the same-sex marriage bill passed with flying (Rainbow) colors. While political involvement is often most prevalent in the wake of crises, the willingness to participate in electioneering as humanitarian service is constant—for some it is desire. It does not discriminate among state lines, or have a respective gender. It resides in large or small communities and preys to individuals who feel the deprivation of education, environment, economic and physical impacts of our country’s diminishing returns every day. Fewer Washingtonian students may be committed to increasing opportunities that will ultimately maximize the need for volunteering, but now that college students can smoke pot and marry whomever they choose—avowing the politics of our state have shifted to a more liberal agenda— service to others in times of change and electioneering and sacrifice for our nation may be “worth” returning to as one of our most enduring traditions as a hip younger, fledgling middle-class America. ####