11-3-2020

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2020 Election

The Daily Aztec

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

EDITOR IN CHIEF Brenden Tuccinardi Graphic by Emily Burgess

Graphic by Emily Burgess

Biden, Harris battle Trump, Pence put America first for soul of nation b Jayne

Yutig

STAFF WRITER

In an election that former Vice President Joe Biden calls a “battle for the soul of the nation,” the candidates have promised to steer a polarized and divided nation towards stability and to unite the country along the way.

For over two decades, Biden served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee where he co-sponsored landmark legislation like the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. With over a 40-year record in politics, Biden has had to apologize for supporting what is referred to as the 1994 Crime Bill that disproportionately affected people of color. Biden has expressed “regret” over his handling of Anita Hill’s allegations against Justice

Clarence Thomas when he presided over Thomas’ confirmation hearings.

When it comes to his vote in 2002 in support of the Iraq war, Biden says “it was a mistake.”

Biden has made two previous attempts at the presidency. Once in 1987, the second run in 2007.

Biden’s history legislating as a member of Congress appealed to the then-Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama.

In 2009, Biden made history to become the 47th Vice President of the United States, serving alongside the country’s first Black president.

During his tenure as Vice President, Biden led the effort on Capitol Hill to rescue the nation from economic collapse during the recession of 2008 and see

BIDEN, page 8

by

Jadyn Brant

NEWS EDITOR

Republican incumbent Donald Trump is running for president once again alongside Vice President Mike Pence.

Last election, the president ran on his promise to “Make America Great Again,” and used his public persona as a businessman and reality television star to appeal to voters who felt the country should be run more like a business.

His accomplishments as president include the creation of the Space Force, the Taxes and Jobs Act, the First Step Act and the appointment of three Supreme Court Justices and over 200 judges to the federal bench.

President Trump has also faced his fair share of obstacles throughout his second presidential run

including human rights violations at the Mexico-US border, the lives and jobs lost in the COVID-19 pandemic, the rising social and political tensions across the country and a brief, yet highly publicized battle with COVID-19.

In an election season that has been unlike any other, all candidates have had to adjust their election strategies. Financing and campaigning have been much more limited in the last eight months, though Trump has still brought in multi-million dollar donations from rail-road owners, real-estate moguls and the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Trump has named his 2020 campaign “America First” and is running on similar messaging first introduced in his 2016 campaign including anti-imsee

TRUMP, page 8

Some SDSU students can’t vote. Proposition 17 will change that by

Catlan Nguyen

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Should every citizen in the United States get the right to vote?

Should one mistake take your voice away?

With the elections approaching quickly, here’s a deeper dive into Proposition 17.

If passed, Prop 17 will restore the right to vote to individuals on state parole directly after they’re released from prison.

It would allow an estimated 50,000 people to

be able to vote in future elections and result in one-time state costs of about hundreds of thousands of dollars which is less than 1% of the state’s current general fund.

“I strongly believe that no one should have their right to vote taken away at any time,” San Diego State Project Rebound Executive Director Alan Mobley said. “For their own rehabilitation, making them think they’ve been exiled from society, it hurts their chances for effective rehabilitation. If

we keep them involved in society, it’s not only helpful for them but for all of us.”

Mobley also said structural issues create a revolving door where people go from their neighborhoods to detention and correctional facilities and back.

“It seemed to be self-replicating,” Mobley said. “When people are taken out of their communities and put into prison, it’s usually because the institutions earlier in their lives have largely failed

them like the schools didn’t produce for them standard educational outcomes.”

Mobley also said how the tuition for CSU’s skyrocketed in part because the state’s money has gone away from the universities and towards the prisons.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative’s website, 239,000 people are locked up in California as of 2018 and the U.S. has some of the highest incarceration see

PROP 17, page 8

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/thedailyaztec The views and opinions expressed in this issue do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Aztec.

3 2020 Election Téa Adams and Mallory Adams SDSU students make their voices heard send open letter to studentNov. 3, 2020 Vote

The Daily Aztec

athletes regarding 2020 Election by

Amber Salas

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

San Diego State student-athletes are exercising their right to let their voice be heard during this year’s election. 463 student-athletes are registered to vote. Every student-athlete on 18 of 19 SDSU athletic programs are registered to vote.

With a passion to make sure every person exercises their right to vote, women’s basketball sophomore forward Mallory Adams and senior guard Téa Adams collaborated with members of the SDSU athletic department to educate student-athletes on the importance of voting.

“We were just really passionate about seeing change,

File Photo Sophomore forward Mallory Adams (left) and Téa Adams (right) each dribble the ball up the court during the Aztecs’ 55-45 win over Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 17, 2019 at Viejas Arena

and obviously, voting is the place where it’s most effective,” Mallory Adams said.

“But it’s only effective if a lot of people get involved in it.”

Mallory and Téa collaborated with members from administration in the athletic department to send an open letter in a newsletter that included their own

Turning Point and College Dems debate ahead of Election

by Jason

Fruend

STAFF WRITER

On Oct. 28, The Daily Aztec hosted a virtual debate between Turning Point USA at San Diego State and the College Democrats. The debate was hosted on Zoom and was broadcast via Facebook Live.

Representatives from both student organizations discussed the topics of criminal justice, immigration, the environment, abortion and the response to coronavirus.

Each topic was allocated 10 minutes of discussion, with five minutes for TPUSA at SDSU and five minutes for the College Democrats, along with a short amount of time after for a rebuttal.

Criminal Justice After introductions were

made, the debate began by asking both sides if they thought city governments should reevaluate how they fund law enforcement agencies.

TPUSA at SDSU President Kiarra Mapp called for more funding for police training in conjunction with the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT).

“We need more funding for enhanced police training so they can have a better understanding of some mental health situations,” Mapp said.“If we don’t even understand how they (the police) do their job, how are we supposed to understand the budget?”

Citing the Defund the Police movement, Ben Nesbit, speaking for the College Democrats, motioned for see

DEBATE, page 9

voice encouraging their fellow student-athletes to register.

“We worked with a couple of the people in administration to kind of make sure that it had our own voice, but was appropriate to be shared with all of the see

ATHLETE, page 6

by Jeannette

Giovanniello

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

For many San Diego State students, the 2020 Election is their first voting experience, However, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, some have decided to cast their vote through mail-in ballots.

Alex Sheron, a journalism sophomore, plans to head to the polls to make sure his vote is secured.

“I think it’s kind of cool to be able to go to the (polls) and physically cast my vote and know that it was cast,” Sheron said. “With the mail-in, I absolutely trust the postal service, but accidents happen. It’s more of just a sure possibility of getting my vote in.”

For some, voting in-person is not only a safety hazard but a time commitment.

Environmental engineering sophomore Skye Benson is mailing in her ballot because it is “convenient,” although she has concerns.

“My vote does not feel safe, but since I am in a primarily blue state and I’m voting blue this election, it won’t be as significant if mine is not counted for that reason,” Benson said.

“In swing states, that is definitely a problem to worry about. You hand off your ballot, you don’t know if it makes it there.”

The pandemic is just one see

VOICES, page 6

Graphic by Emily Burgess

How Rock the Vote registered thousands to vote online by

Patrick Doyle

STAFF WRITER

Before every election, Associated Students hosts a Rock the Vote campaign to register as many students as possible to vote and make sure they know how to cast their ballot.This year, the campaign registered nearly 1,400 people.

While mass outreach to students is difficult in normal circumstances, running this campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially challenging.

Due to state and county public health guidance, the university does not allow in-person events, so gone are the days of setting up tables to try and encourage people to register.

“I think the most challenging part of adapting (Rock the Vote) is the fact that we can’t have in-person registration,” said SDSU Rock

the Vote Chair Armando Sepulveda II. “We would have had more in-person events.”

Instead, Rock the Vote had to rely heavily on social media outreach. Instagram was its platform of choice, with the official @ sdsurockthevote account posting multiple times each week informing voters of what’s on the ballot and reminding them to register.

The account even offered weekly “Civic Tours,” or one-on-one sessions with voter registration experts who students could ask any questions they had about voting.

In addition to outreach on Instagram, the Rock the Vote website provided links to register online in every single state, as well as the deadlines to register. It even included info on every single proposition on the ballot in California and

most candidates in San Diego County.

All of this information came together thanks to a fairly small team of volunteers.

“It was because of the education team that I recruited that we were able to execute fully on those ideas and that we were able to push for the registration numbers that we got,” Sepulveda said.

The education team consisted of a few SDSU students who worked with other small teams like the social media team and the events planning team to coordinate this massive effort to get people registered to vote.

And it certainly was massive, as one of their biggest challenges during this pandemic was the fact that many SDSU students are see

RTV, page 9

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2020 Election

The Daily Aztec

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

Democrats Bry and Gloria in tight mayoral contest

by Jason

Freund

STAFF WRITER

Come Nov. 3, the citizens of San Diego will elect a new mayor and the race could not be tighter. For the first time since 1971, San Diegans will be choosing between two Democrats.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer (a Republican) has served in the position since 2014.

Faulconer is termed out and is thus unable to run for re-election.

Looking to take Faulconer’s place are San Diego City Council President Pro Tempore Barbara Bry and California Assemblymember Todd Gloria.

Both Democrats, Bry and Gloria are aligned on several issues, however in recent weeks the two candidates have each carved out positions that set themselves apart from one another.

Homelessness The issue of homelessness has troubled San Di-

VS Photo courtesy of Todd Gloria

ego for the past decade.

With the virus spreading and businesses closing, some city officials fear the homeless rates will spike as people are unable to pay mortgages and rent.

Gloria has made homelessness a top priority in his campaign and advocates for a housing-first approach, evidenced by his backing of Measure A. The measurement, on the condition of passing, would raise property taxes within the city to allow $900 million in bonds to go to housing for low income and homeless families.

Photo courtesy of Barbra Bry

Opponents of the measure are quick to point out the tax increase and question whether San Diego property owners can afford another tax increase during a pandemic, though Gloria has said San Diegans will come together and do their part to solve the crisis.

“It is shocking to me that as people’s plates are full, as they’re worried about the fiscal well-being of themselves and their families, as they’re worried about their personal finances and the finances of their family, they observe every day our cities homelessness crisis and

they want something done about it,” Gloria said in an interview with The Daily Aztec.

Bry’s plan to address homelessness in San Diego is a more individualized approach that focuses on support services for mental health and drug issues. She also has advocated against short-term vacation rentals, to which she attributes the decline in San Diego’s affordable housing stock, according to her campaign website.

By streamlining the process of connecting to resource centers, Bry believes

that homeless individuals will get the help they need much quicker.

N a v i g a t i n g COVID-19 Economic Fallout Major losses to the hotel and tourism industry alongside the loss of thousands of jobs have brought the San Diego economy to its knees.

The outlook for San Diego’s tourism industry is grim. Experts told 10 News they anticipate an estimated loss of $4 billion and 50,000 jobs due to the pandemic.

Bry’s “Roadmap to Recovery” prioritizes building an adaptive and diverse workforce and shrinking government bureaucracy while working quickly and safely to bring tourists and conventions back to San Diego.

“This will help our economy. It will get people back see

MAYOR, page 6

Council candidates campaign on equality, climate, housing District 1 - La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines Joe Lacava

Photo courtesy of Joe Lacava

Joe Lacava is a San Diego State graduate and is a native San Diegan. According to his campaign website, Lacava has served on more than 20 civic boards and commissions. Lacava fought against SoccerCity’s plan and ballot measure for the development of the Mission Valley stadium site and worked as a

Will Moore

Photo courtesy of Will Moore

Will Moore is a small business attorney from Macon, Georgia. According to his website, Moore graduated from Georgia Tech, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. Moore then served a tour in the Peace Corps. After returning, he attended Columbia Law School. He

civil engineer on projects covering infrastructure to housing. He currently lives in the Bird Rock neighborhood of La Jolla.

Lacava plans to address the housing issues in San Diego by starting with assisting the homeless population. This includes introducing rapid rehousing programs to prevent chronic homelessness, creating permanent sup-

portive housing to support those who are chronically homeless, and offering support and assistance for jobs. Lacava also supports the use of state and federal grants for health and human services, enforcing zoning laws when it comes to rentals, and ensuring that every residential unit in San Diego is available to renters and buyers, not saved for short term rent-

als.

Lacava wants to protect open space and implement the city’s Climate Action Plan. He also wants San Diego to set a clear path to meet the goals established within the action plan while also preparing for the future. Lacava plans to work towards fixing infrastructure, focusing on the damage in older regions of San Diego.

later opened his firm, The Moore Firm - Business Law, to help people start and support their own businesses. Moore has served on multiple boards and was a founding member of Business for Good to support the community. He currently lives in Carmel Valley.

Moore’s plan to resolve the housing crisis starts with building more hous-

ing near job centers, reforming the housing code and working to update old community plans in the city. To encourage more affordable housing and development, Moore plans to readjust development fees to be based on square footage and not units. He also wants to streamline building timelines.

Moore supports the

city’s Climate Action Plan but says San Diego needs to do more to reduce its carbon emissions. He also advocates for enhancing transit, encouraging renewable energy and rooftop solar while also bringing those options to a cheaper and more secure energy grid. Improving transit would also include repairing roads and poor infrastructure.

2020 Election

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

The Daily Aztec

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District 3 - Downtown, Uptown, Greater North Park, Normal Heights Stephen Whitburn

Photo courtesy of Stephen Whitburn

Stephen Whitburn graduated from the University of Wisconsin and has resided in San Diego for over twenty years. According to his website, Whitburn has spent time volunteering at the American Red Cross in San Diego and has advocated for the LGBTQ+

Toni Duran

Photo courtesy of Toni Duran

Toni Duran was born in East Los Angeles and has served as a staff member for District 3 in the State Assembly and Senate since 2013. According to her campaign website, Duran has advocated for the support of women, veterans,

community. He has also volunteered by serving on numerous advisory panels in San Diego and North Park.

To address San Diego’s housing challenges, Whitburn plans to work with the San Diego Housing Commission to preserve and improve affordable housing.

He also plans to build more

affordable housing near trolley stations and encourage mass transit and offer property tax incentives to builders who include extra affordable housing units in their construction.

If elected, he wants to fully implement the Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whitburn also would

treeline pedestrian promenades, lower water and energy usage within the city, and add more renewable energy sources and clean energy vehicles. He also plans to encourage more widespread use of the trolley and MTS and building housing near transit centers to reduce traffic congestion and emissions.

the LGBTQ+ community and victims of human trafficking.

Duran’s housing plan is a housing-centric approach.

It calls for an increase in the number of permanent supportive housing units that include supportive services for homeless San Diegans and eventually

help them into permanent housing. Her plans for addressing climate change include regular updates on the progress of implementing the Climate Action Plan, increasing telecommuting options for employees, and ensuring more city buildings have solar panels and renewable energy options.

Duran wants to improve San Diego’s infrastructure by resurfacing streets properly and repairing the sidewalks. She also wants to end backlogging, complete construction in a timely manner and prioritize funding strategic mobility plans for high-density neighborhoods in the city.

District 5 - Scripps Miramar Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch Marni Von Wilpert

Photo courtesy of Marni Von Wilpert

Marni Von Wilpert is a San Diego native and a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego. She previously worked as an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC. According to her website, Von Wilpert served in the Peace Corps before return-

Joe Leventhal

Photo courtesy of Joe Leventhal

Joe Leventhal is a graduate of UC San Diego and is a lawyer and business owner. He has also served as a commissioner on San Diego’s Ethics Commission. According to his website, Leventhal previously worked as a legislative aide

ing to San Diego, where she serves on numerous boards including San Diego Youth Services. She currently lives in Scripps Ranch and is running as a Democrat.

Von Wilpert plans to address housing issues by streamlining housing permits and while maintaining neighborhood character.

She wants to leverage state

and federal funds to build housing for all income levels, expand first-time homebuyer programs and build housing away from at-risk fire zones.

Von Wilpert wants San Diego to fully implement the Climate Action Plan and achieve 100% renewable energy by 2035. She also wants to preserve open space and

San Diego’s rich diversity of plants and animals and create more jobs in clean green industries. Von Wilpert also plans to add more HOV and dedicated bus lanes to encourage carpooling and reduce traffic. Additionally, she wants to prioritize road repairs and increase family-friendly green spaces such as parks.

on Capitol Hill and was an attorney in the White House and served as deputy assistant to the vice president. He has served on multiple boards in San Diego including the Rancho Bernardo Rotary and the Rancho Bernardo Business Association. He is running as a Republican.

Leventhal plans to improve transit conditions by creating long term solutions for road maintenance and repair. He also would support homeless San Diegans by focusing on mental health resources and providing rehabilitation services for those struggling with addiction. Levanthal

has made commitments to support police, firefighters, and other first responders by giving them “tools they need to keep dangerous criminals off our streets and our homes protected.”

Leventhal’s campaign website included no outlines on affordable housing or climate change.

District 7 - Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, Grantville, Linda Vista, Mission Valley, San Carlos, Serra Mesa, Tierrasanta Noli Zosa

Photo courtesy of Noli Zosa

Noli Zosa is a University of San Diego alumni having earned both unergraduate and graduate degrees there and co-founder of the restaurant chain Dirty Birds. According to his website, Zosa has

served on multiple committees in his district and has worked in the public and private sectors. Zosa is a Republican.

To address San Diego’s housing shortage, Zosa wants to streamline the building permit process, review fees collected by

the city as well as give priority to low-income families who are at risk of being displaced by new development. He plans to repair city infrastructure and plan for future changes to transportation, such as self-driving cars. Zosa has advocated for the cre-

ation of a program that would train police officers in college, similar to the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program.

Zosa’s campaign website had no outline of how he would address climate change if elected to City Council.

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The Daily Aztec

2020 Election Raul Campillo

Photo courtesy of Raul Campillo

Raul Campillo is a San Diego native and currently works in the San Diego City Attorney’s Office.

According to his website, he taught fifth grade in a low-income Las Vegas neighborhood, worked for the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles and worked for Hillary for America’s

National Headquarters in 2016. He currently lives in Mission Valley and is running as a Democrat.

Campillo plans to address homelessness in San Diego by combating mental health and drug addictions within the homeless community by no longer treating it as a criminal problem but as a health problem. In an Op-Ed published by the San Diego Union-Tribune,

Campillo called for money in SDPD’s budget to be redirected to homelessness services and “rigorous” training and oversight needed to stop the misuse of force.

He also wants to improve San Diego’s transit by increasing electrical wires being underground instead of aboveground and lower repair times for construction and mainte-

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

nance in the city.

Campillo expressed support for oversight of the SDSU Mission Valley project in order to ensure SDSU fulfills its promises and adequately mitigates traffic caused by the development.

Campillo’s campaign website has no mention of how he would address climate change if elected to office.

District 9 - College Area, City Heights, Southeastern San Diego Sean Elo-Rivera

Photo courtesy of Sean Elo-Rivera

MAYOR:

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to work in the hotel industry,” Bry told The Daily Aztec.

Bry’s plan also calls for universal internet access and the development of a municipal internet strategy, according to her campaign website.

Gloria’s “Back to Work SD” plan also advocates for a diversified workforce, and a measured reopening of convention spaces.

The blueprint, which Gloria calls a “collective wisdom on what we can do as

ATHLETE:

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athletic department,” Mallory Adams said.

It was important to Mallory and Téa to have their own voice be relatable to the student-athletes. They felt sharing their own voice could be the most effective way to get the population of student-athletes on board with their mission.

The letter was effective

Sean Elo-Rivera is currently serving as a San Diego Community College Board of Trustees. According to his website, Elo-Rivera attended law school at California Western School of Law in San Diego after earning his bachelor’s from Chapman University.

He’s received awards for his work on City Heights

Community Law Project to provide free legal clinics. He’s served as a board member on several nonprofit organizations.

Elo-Rivera’s plans for addressing the housing crisis include enforcing and protecting tenants’ rights and increasing the supply and availability of affordable housing, especially for multigenerational families.

He also plans to provide

more supportive housing and supports using federal funding to acquire affordable housing that already exists.

In order to address climate change, Elo-Rivera plans to begin implementing the San Diego Green New Deal and add more parks and green space and infrastructure. He advocates for improving public transportation, making the

streets safer for community members of all ages, and overall investing in infrastructure and public transportation.

Editor’s Note: District 9 candidate Kelvin Barrios was not included above because he suspended his campaign and will not be seeking the District 9 City Council seat.

a community for a locally driven economic stimulus effort,” acknowledges that the economy can’t reopen until schools open and there is a shift in money from outside city limits to local businesses in San Diego.

Both candidates agreed on renewed investment in infrastructure such as buses, roads and light rail. Both Bry and Gloria said they view this, as well as the development of SDSU Mission Valley, as key to creating new jobs while creating revenue for the city. Gloria’s plan takes this a step fur-

ther by outlining plans for the redevelopment of the Sports Arena and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) site.

Rising coronavirus cases At over 53,000 cases, the county has the fifth-highest amount of cases in the state. Those numbers continue to rise despite an increase in testing, once again putting the county at risk of returning to a more restrictive tier in California’s reopening plan.

Coinciding with the rise of cases is the well-documented coronavirus issues

at SDSU that peaked in September.

Some city officials and citizens have protested this, calling for SDSU’s positive cases to be left out of the county’s total case count.

Both Gloria and Bry agree that SDSU is not entirely to blame for the spike in positive COVID-19 cases off campus and said cases associated with SDSU should factor into San Diego County’s overall positivity rate.

“Students at San Diego State work in our community and live in our community,” Gloria said. “To try

and delude ourselves into thinking a case on campus wouldn’t impact the community is just crazy.”

Both candidates also agreed on how to slow the city’s rapidly increasing case numbers; wear a mask, practice social distancing, and listen to the data.

“I think wearing a mask is just as important as continuing to do social distancing, Bry said. “As mayor, I am going to model that behavior.”

For more information on their policies, visit Bry and Gloria’s websites.

as a few student-athletes from other teams reached out to both Mallory and Téa expressing they saw their letter and it made an impression on them. Several of their own women’s basketball teammates also reached out for tips on how to register to vote.

“Some of our own teammates needed help registering, so we helped them register,” Téa Adams said.

“That’s really what the goal was and I think that it was really effective.”

SDSU Athletics collaborated with student-athletes on a leadership council as well as Associated Students’ “Rock the Vote” campaign to launch a voter education campaign. The goal was to get 100% of student-athletes registered to vote.

“We worked with some of the people on the ath-

letic department staff,” Téa Adams said. “They actually set the goal that they wanted 100% participation in registering to vote in the athletic department, and they reached out to us because they knew personally that we were very passionate about this and pushing for change.”

In total, 99.6% of eligible SDSU student-athletes are registered to vote.

Téa Adams explained their goal was to reach out to student-athletes in a way that inspires them so others feel the need to participate.

“It’s important for (the student-athletes) to actually want to participate in something like this instead of just speaking at them and them not really under-

Alexa Oslowski, photo editor all profiles by

see

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Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

2020 Election

How CA 49th, 52nd, and 53rd Candidates Line up on the Issues As the 2020 general election draws closer,The Daily Aztec’s Patrick Doyle sat down with congressional candidates Brian Maryott, Jim DeBello, Sara Jacobs, and Georgette Gómez from California’s 49th, 52nd, and 53rd congressional districts to see how they line up on issues most important to college students. (by Patrick Doyle, Staff Writer) Here were their responses on the issues.

Homelessness “Obviously affordability of housing in California is an issue as well, but I don’t think the lack of available housing is the core issue, it’s more of an addiction and mental health issue.”

–Brian Maryott (R - CA 49th) “My thought is we need to provide a helping hand, not a handout. All the handouts that we provide aren’t taking people off the street.”

–Jim DeBello (R - CA 52nd)

Photo courtesy of Georgette Gomez

“HUD needs to redo its formula of how we reissue money to local cities. Our need for housing has not been reflected in that formula. We’ve been getting less money despite an increased need for housing.”

–Georgette Gómez (D - CA 53rd) “I think we need to modernize the funding formula so that San Diego actually gets the funding that we need to address this crisis from the federal government. I also think we need federal programs that fund homelessness prevention” –Sara Jacobs (D - CA 53rd) Mike Levin (D - CA 49th) and Scott Peters (D - CA 52nd) has not yet responded to our interview request.

Student Loan Debt “We have to leverage federal resources better than we are.The federal government is the ultimate central bank and has access to money at virtually no cost, and we have to use that again and bring more lenders in the marketplace so we can have the best possible terms.”

–Brian Maryott (R - CA 49th) “I think the government should not expand efforts to help people for higher education…(Student loan debt) is an obligation, and that’s the way the world works. ... I think there are ways to have workout plans where payments can be deferred or spread out over a longer period of time.”

–Jim DeBello (R - CA 52nd) “I’m a strong supporter of introducing loan forgiveness, and I think it needs to occur for people who are in low-income brackets as well as medium income.”

– Georgette Gómez (D - CA 53rd)

Photo courtesy of Sara Jacobs

The Economy “We have people leaving California because they can’t afford the energy crisis, we have businesses running out of here like their hair’s on fire because they can’t pay for the energy...

(Getting rid of fossil fuels) would completely crush any economic opportunity for you and your fellow students.”

–Brian Maryott (R - CA 49th)

Photo courtesy of Jim DeBello

“We need to, obviously, support those who have been forced to be unemployed x state unemployment benefits, and we can’t sustain the high rate of unemployment supplement that we have because it’s obviously sending us further into debt— and frankly, it’s an incentive not to work.”

–Jim DeBello (R - CA 52nd) “We need to provide more relief to small businesses as we’re bringing back the economy. We need to rethink San Diego as very dependent on the tourism industry.”

– Georgette Gómez (D - CA 53rd)

“We need to allow student “We need to be spendloan debt to be refinanced… ing money on things like I think we need to be able to universal pre-k, on things discharge student loan debt like health coverage, on in bankruptcy. I personally be- things like college, because lieve that the most progres- that actually improves our sive thing we can do is have economy which means more targeted approaches we’ll actually have more tax base down the road.” to student loan forgiveness.”

–Sara Jacobs (D - CA –Sara Jacobs (D - CA 53rd) 53rd)

SIGNS:

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about the environment and will put climate change at the forefront of her campaign. Also, according to the design group BourneCreative, green represents renewal, freshness and ambition. Gomez is using green to encourage votes to see that she is the candidate who will follow through on ambitious plans, provide a fresh face to the district and spark interest in tackling climate change and other issues.

On the other side, Jacobs incorporates three main colors into her yard signs: black, white and blue.

She uses a plain white background with her first name written in blue text and the last in black text.

According to BourneCreative, the use of black in graphic design is meant to represent “strength, seriousness, power and authority.” With her last name in black and considering her wealthy background — her father is the co-founder of Qualcomm— Jacobs’ last name comes from a long line of family members who have experienced authority and positions of power.

With Jacobs using the color of light blue in her first name, it could showcase to voters what her party identity is as a Democrat, though the San Diego County Democratic Party did not endorse Jacobs and criticized her for making misleading statements about her Democratic endorsements. Blue also is known to evoke calmness and stability. If voters see this, it can encourage them to vote for her because she will bring that same sentiment into her office.

Jacobs chose to use white as her background color, serving as a blank backdrop to draw the eyes on her main subject on the sign – which is her name.

BourneCreative also states white represents a successful beginning, coolness and simplicity. When people see the color white, it is meant to promote “feelings of fresh beginnings.”

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Since Jacobs has never been a politician nor held a seat in the congressional office before, the use of white could tell voters that she is the one to usher in a new beginning in the 53rd Congressional District which has been represented by Susan Davis for almost two decades. Jacobs’ use of white could indicate her wanting to bring in new energy and a fresh start to a district that has had the same representative for 19 years.

In a city with as much political prominence and population density as San Diego, mayoral candidates are taking just as much care in what they are communicating nonverbally. Both mayoral candidates, Barbara Bry and Todd Gloria, are Democrats — and both are campaigning heavily on the fact that they can work independently of their party’s goals.

Bry’s campaign uses primarily white with blue and green text, with blue featured much more prominently. Unlike Gomez’s campaign, the use of green is not used here to emphasize Bry’s stance on environmental issues. Most likely, it’s used in the same way that it’s used in marketing.

Green is associated with money and can contribute a calming effect associated with wealth and stability.

Gloria opted for a heavily blue and purple color scheme (his entire website background is a blue to purple gradient, and the posters and signs associated with Gloria’s campaign feature prominent royal blue and violet shapes and text).

Likely, the purple is used in more of a political sense, as a blend of blue and red. By including the blue, Gloria’s campaign emphasizes his Democratic ties but implies that although he still strongly remains in the political blue, he intends to work with his colleagues in red.

Both campaigns use singular stars in their name, a symbol frequently used as it is associated with victory, the American flag and ambisee

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passed the Affordable Care Act that insured millions and protected individuals with pre-existing conditions.

As the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Sen. Harris has already made history as the first Black and South Asian woman to be named as vice president to a major party ticket.

But, her history of making history began years ago in California. Harris broke glass ceilings as the first: Black woman to serve as district attorney in San Francisco, the first Black

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migration priorities and promises to lower taxes.

Although Trump is running as a Republican, his running mate, current Vice President Mike Pence, is the more seasoned and arguably more traditional candidate the GOP has fielded in previous general elections.

Pence is a career politician from Indiana and served in the House of Representatives and then as the Governor of Indiana until 2017. Pence is a staunch opponent of abortion, drug-legalization, and the Green New Deal.

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rates in the world.

“We don’t want to over-rely on prisons,” Mobley said. “We want to start investing in different types of approaches to help people live meaningful and dignified lives within the law. There’s been a shift from more punitive to restorative tactics.”

In other countries such as Germany or even other states like Vermont and Maine, those who are still imprisoned can vote.

“Enhancements (on prison terms) are another

2020 Election

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

and first Asian woman to serve as Attorney General of California and in 2016 became the first Indian-American senator.

Harris currently serves on four Senate committees that include, the Senate Judiciary Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence.

KEY CAMPAIGN POLICIES COVID-19 One of the most important issues to voters in 2020 is COVID-19. Biden and Harris’ COVID-19 strategy includes: mandating mask-wearing on all federal property, creating a national committee for widespread testing and

contact-tracing, medical and financial support for front line workers, coordinating a global effort towards developing a vaccine, creating a cohesive national strategy for re-openings and investment in unemployment benefits.

Economy The economic impacts of COVID-19 are vast and uncertain, Biden and Harris’ economic plan includes: investing in innovation that promotes American manufacturing, investing in clean energy infrastructure, repairing systemic racial economic inequities, reversing Trump tax cuts and raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

Racial Equity Following a summer of unrest in response to systemic racial injustice, Biden and Harris’ priorities for Black Americans includes: addressing the COVID-19 health and economic disparities facing the Black community, immediately taking on the wealth gaps propped up by systemic racial inequities, expanding President Obama era tax cut and incentives for Black entrepreneurship, ensuring Black Americans have protections to access capital and investment opportunities like government contracts, eliminating state and local housing regulations that promote dis-

crimination and investing $100 billion in affordable housing.

Climate Change Biden and Harris plan to address climate change on day one in the following ways: treat climate change as a climate emergency and implement measures to achieve net-zero emissions and 100% clean energy by 2050, implementing a cooperative global strategy by rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, protect low-income communities from polluters like in places like Flint, Michigan, rolling back Trump tax cuts to corporations, create a new workforce of clean energy jobs.

KEY CAMPAIGN POLICIES COVID-19 The Trump administration has historically been skeptical of the dangers of COVID-19, though President Trump did test positive for COVID-19 last month. On the White House website, the Trump administration has announced its plans for “Opening Up America Again” which includes 3 phases: criteria of a 14-day downward trend in cases, state preparedness in contact tracing and testing, and three phases of restriction for “individuals”, “employers” and “specific types of employers”. The

president has also advocated for another large stimulus package but has yet to deliver, facing a gridlocked Congress.

Economy The US economy took a hit after COVID-19 caused businesses to close and left thousands out of work.

In order to rebuild, President Trump will likely follow the Republican model of tax cuts and less regulation as he has already passed the Taxes and Jobs Act. In his 2021 Budget Proposal, Trump highlights his goals of cutting regulations, “American Energy Independence” and prioritizing 5G and artificial intelligence research.

Social Unrest The Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests began under the Trump administration, and tensions are still high in parts of the country. President Trump said he opposed the dismantling of police forces but did sign an executive order banning the use of chokeholds by police unless deadly force is allowed by law as well as creating a database of police misconduct.

Climate Change Trump repealed President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, removed the US from the Paris Climate Accords and is outspokenly against the Green New

Deal. Instead, Trump has finalized the Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Trump has also approved the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Student Loans According to the Trump campaign’s website, the Trump administration has made Pell Grants available year-round, not just in the spring and fall quarters.

Ideally, students would be able to earn their degrees faster and with fewer loans because they could utilize the grants during winter and summer. In the face of the pandemic, Trump passed an executive order pausing all student loan payments until Jan. 1, 2021.

way the system disenfranchises minorities because minorities are the ones who are mostly in the system,” SDSU sociology fourth-year Sarah Norris said.

Norris was incarcerated for eight years when she was 20 years old and is currently on parole.

Enhancements are used to add extra time to sentencing if an individual had past criminal offenses.

Formerly incarcerated psychology alumnus Moises Garcia-Perez is also in favor of Prop 17 because he believes convictions have been weaponized by

the prison system to take people of color’s right to vote away.

“Voting does have some type of social impact where you feel more acceptable to society,” Garcia-Perez said. “Once I got off of paperwork and knew I could vote, I felt more acceptable to the government, the state, the country. I felt more a part of the country.”

Mobley also states, while reasons past prisoners re-offend are very complex, Prop 17 passing could reduce recidivism or the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-of-

fend.

Opposers of Prop 17 fear it will allow rapists and murderers to vote and shape our policies and they lost that right when they broke the law, according to the official California voter information guide.

“There’s really no clear cut distinction between those who are serving time for violent crimes and those who are for nonviolent crimes and, I don’t know if this will blow your mind, there’s no meaningful distinction between them and the rest of us,” Mobley said.

Norris said being categorized as a violent offender is solely up to the judge and the district attorney.

“You can be sentenced to a violent case for something that maybe your co-defendant committed but then when you go to prison, they look at your case and you’re coded as nonviolent, but legally you’re considered violent,” Norris said.

For more information on Prop 17 and all the other propositions on the ballot, check out our proposition voter guide.

2020 Election

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

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of the many factors making this an interesting election year. In conjunction with the past six months of quarantine, nationwide protests and heavy social media campaigning have made students feel more encouraged to vote. Unlike previous years, students said they think there will be a

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a reallocation of funds and brought up more liberal solutions to the problem.

“If you look at a prisoner in the United States, 70% of them in the next five years will be reincarcerated,” Nesbit said. “We can reallocate these funds to have closer to a system like Norway’s, where they have a 20% recidivism rate over the next five years.”

Immigration The first instance of vastly differing opinions occurred between Dylan Meisner of the College Democrats and Cam Soutter of TPUSA at SDSU regarding the issue of President Donald Trump’s handling of asylum seekers.

Meisner called President Trump’s response “disgraceful and inhuman” while noting that immigration improves both local and national culture within the United States.

“More immigration and a looser labor market are extremely good for our economy,” Meisner said. “It might be bad for one or two sectors, but in terms of national GDP and the economy at large, it is a massive boon.”

Soutter acknowledged that some of the practic-

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attending classes virtually and out of state, meaning unlike in previous years, the teams needed to have knowledge about every state in the country.

“I think it was super ex-

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large voter turnout among younger generations.

“I think that this will definitely be one of the biggest elections, at least among our generation,” Benson said. “Because there’s so much out there that says, ‘Go vote!’ (when) you log into Instagram it pops up and says make sure you register to vote.”

Already, the total number of early votes and mail-in

ballots cast have surpassed totals from the same time in 2016. The San Diego County Registrar of voters tweeted on Oct. 29 it had received over 930,000 ballots.

“I think that there has been a lot of energy put into this election by younger people because of the recent protests and because of the obvious things that are being taken away from

this presidency,” Nicholas Ebadat, a journalism sophomore, said. “A lot of the misinformation that gets people riled up is a part of the reason why I expect more young people to vote than they would have in the last few years.”

Ebadat also said that the low voter turnout in previous elections likely has to do with people thinking their votes are insignificant.

“I think, for the most part, there is a general disdain for voting because people feel like what they vote for doesn’t matter,” Ebadat said.

“I think a lot of that has to do with how the last election went with Hillary winning the popular vote and electoral college choosing Trump instead. I feel like after that people feel like their voice isn’t being heard as well as it should be.”

es had ethical issues but declared that President Trump’s practices were not unique to his presidency.

Soutter said that the United States isn’t alone when tackling immigration problems at the border.

“There is nothing unique about the United States and how we handle this,” Soutter said. “Every nation that borders a country with incredibly high amounts of migrants per quarter has to have some sort of forceful mandate.”

The discussion shifted to where the parties stood on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA).

DACA, announced in 2012 by former President Barack Obama, extends protections against deportations while providing work permits to those eligible for the policy. The policy has survived several attempts by the Trump administration to end it.

While Meisner pushed for an expansion of DACA and Soutter believed its economic benefits weren’t enough to pass similar legislation, both agreed that the DACA system would ultimately prove unharmful to the nation.

Environment Both parties were asked if the government needs

to do more to combat cli- to the construction of the mate change and what pol- railroad or development of icies need to be prioritized. the postal system.

At the beginning of his Abortion five minutes, Soutter was The next topic apblunt in saying that the proached the opinion of United States had done abortion and if women enough in regards to elimi- have a constitutional right nating global emissions. to abortion and reproduc“The U.S. government tive choice. doesn’t need to do more,” Mapp and Soutter argued Soutter said. “I think the against abortion, saying the United States has essen- unborn fetus had constitially led the Western and tutional rights to survival Eastern world in regards to while abortion was not a environmental policies that basic human right. actually cut emissions.”

“This is a completely difSoutter called the reli- ferent human being inside ance on solar and wind en- of the mother,” Mapp said. ergy “naive” and believed “To deny that person’s huthe United States should manity and whether they pressure other nations to live or die… I think that’s convert to U.S.-inspired a violation of that person’s policies. constitutional right to live.”

Nesbit took the opposite Arguing for the College stance, suggesting that the Democrats, Alison AikU.S needed to do more by en cited the due process investing in solar and wind clause of the 14th Amendenergy. ment as a proponent in fa“Solar and wind stocks vor of a woman’s right to are growing every year, abortion. outperforming the fossil “Our right to privacy profuel and coal industries,” tects an individual’s right Nesbit said. “They are the to privacy, including the fasting growing sectors in right to make decisions America, so I don’t know about their own body, inwhy we wouldn’t invest in cluding the right to get an them.” abortion,” said Aiken. “That Nesbit concluded his ar- applies to individuals that gument by stating that in- have been born. That does vestments in solar and wind not apply to fetuses.” energy had the potential Response to Coroto mobilize the American navirus economy in a way similar The final question of the

debate broached the subject of President Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

Meisner was highly critical of the president’s handling of the pandemic, citing the high death rate in the United States and comparing it to countries with liberal democracies that had lower death numbers.

“The point of me bringing up liberal democracies specifically is because they are liberal democracies just like the United States,” Meisner said. “They were able to maintain all of their civil liberties, suspending some freedom of movement in order to prevent the seeding of the virus, and they are alive.”

Soutter noted that President Trump had left the decision to lock down to the states and saw the positives in President Trump telling the public to not let the virus control their lives.

“I think that this sort of random sampling of where these cases have come is very very difficult to attribute to a lack of measures taken by the President,” Soutter said. “I think that since he got the virus after so many months of the lockdown, I think it’s also a good thing he told people to not let it control your life.”

citing that we were able to provide information for all 50 states plus DC,” Voter Registration Coordinator Emily Mickelson said. “Just because in the past we’ve only registered people from California, and since we’re in this pandemic and doing school online, students are

more likely to be living at home in their home states.”

A large part of this effort was the Rock The Vote website.Working to ensure that all of the information was accurate and presented well was a challenge for the three A.S. staff members working graphics and

Bridges said. “The most challenging part has been staying nonpartisan in such a contentious election, and with so much emotion going on in the world right now.”

Aware of the stakes, the

website requests.

“The thing I’m most pleased with is the educational aspect that we’ve taken and the emphasis we’ve put on with having accurate information that’s easy to digest for students on the page.” Social Media and Marketing Lead Beth

see

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2020 Election

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Candidates show their true colors with political yard signs the ‘E’ in Biden. The stripes mimic the ones seen on the American flag. Both campaigns use bold, heavy sans serif fonts, a typeface popularized for its modernity, according to Ross Kimbarovsky, founder and CEO of Crowdspring.

Not only do yard signs for

Emily Forschen and Devin Whatley by

The weather was picturesque on Oct. 28 in Coronado, a reminder that in many ways, the earth is oblivious to the constant chatter of election season amidst an international health pandemic. A couple, the Slanies, woke up to the slightly chilly but sunny morning, business as usual. The breeze lifted and dropped the large “Trump 2020” flag on their porch, though something else caught their eye outside — a sign on the lawn that they hadn’t installed.

They were one of six calls the Coronado Police Department received that day.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before, where people are so divided and it’s ridiculous,” said Ken Slanie to NBC7 San Diego.

The yard sign read “RACISM LIVES HERE, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” typed and styled identically to Donald Trump’s 2016 election yard signs.

The parodied sign played exactly to its audience by engaging many similar elements of design to the original. Political yard signs have been a tradition for people to showcase their civic pride and activism towards a certain candidate, whether in a local or national election.The signs are more than just a statement, however. In fact, they are an art piece with more meaning behind the candidate’s name, and knowing what to look for can help voters know instantly what the candidate wants to tell you without saying a word.

There are many elements

with the earth, with green being found in grass, leaves and nature, and is a callback to her environmental advocacy.

One of the focal issues of Gomez’s campaign for the 53rd Congressional District and Progressive Democrats is to advocate for climate

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

to consider when creating a campaign logo and yard sign — including logos, colors, fonts and symbols.

There’s a reason that parodies like the “Racism Lives Here” signs are instantly identifiable. Trump’s 2016 campaign signs are ubiquitous. Although the fonts didn’t match Trump’s 2016 campaign, the signs imitated the composition, colors, five stars and red rectangle as well as the popularized slo-

specific candidate. This color scheme is understandably very popular in both national and local elections.

Often, the color red is associated with the Republican Party and blue with the Democratic Party.This used to be reversed based on old imagery in England, where red was used to represent the liberal parties.

With the advent of color television, these color associations became im-

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

gan. This wasn’t an accident and neither was the original design the sign hoped to mimic.

Presidential campaigns are perhaps the most discussed and most universal.

As a result, campaign art is designed to represent that idea. Both candidates are using red, white and blue to evoke a sense of patriotism, an artistic attempt to imply a unified nation under that

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

portant for communication but became jumbled, specific to different networks, until the election of 2000.

Because the election was so close and there was no clear winner for a few days, cable news channels kept color-coded maps on air and within that short time essentially all merged, establishing Republican states as red and Democratic states as blue.

The incumbent ticket uses five stars in the center top of the signage, a callback to Trump’s business background, an identity he leaned on to get elected in 2016. The Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ticket use minimal symbolism or shapes, save for three red stripes in

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

the national election carry art behind the message, but for candidates campaigning in local races in San Diego, it has a major effect on how they portray themselves to voters.

In the California 53rd Congressional District, which San Diego State University is located within, Democrats Georgette Gomez and Sara Jacobs face off for the seat. Despite similarities in policies, values and party – the yard signs of both candidates showcase distinct differences.

Gomez’s campaign incorporates heavy use of the color green. Even though she is not a member of the Green Party, Gomez considers herself a progressive Democrat and has advocated for sustainable policy since the beginning of her career in politics. The use of green is often associated

change. According to her website, she lays out a list of ideas to combat it here in San Diego – from reducing emissions and making investments in clean energy to starting energy-efficient retrofitting of homes and offices.

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

The graphics on her sign are primarily green and involve leaves. Upon first glance, viewers could attribute her as the “earth-friendly” candidate, as someone who cares see

SIGNS, page 7

Photo by Alexa Oslowski

11 2020 Election Lebron James’ ‘More Than A Vote’ organization seeks to mobilize, empower Black voters in 2020 Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

by

Trinity Bland

OPINION EDITOR

More Than a Vote, a voting rights organization led by NBA star LeBron James, recruited over 10,000 volunteer poll workers, achieving a pivotal milestone in its effort to combat systemic racist voter suppression.

In a letter on the More Than A Vote website, the organization describes itself as “a coalition of Black athletes and artists who came together amid the protests fueled by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police.”

They have focused its “We Got Next” poll worker recruitment effort — a partnership with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) — in predominantly Black electoral districts ahead of November’s general elections.

While James won himself

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another NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers this year, he is also busy working on getting people to exercise their rights as citizens and vote in national and local elections.

Throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, James has consistently promoted More Than A Vote and utilized his platform to shed light on the difficulties Black citizens face in trying to simply cast a vote, due to widespread voter suppression.

The More Than A Vote initiative has pushed for professional sports organizations to commit to not only using their empty stadiums as polling locations, but to financially contribute over six figures to help disenfranchised voters in Florida regain their voting rights.

“We marched. We demanded change. Now,

we’re ensuring our voices are heard. 10,000 new poll workers,” the Legal Defense Fund posted on Twitter.

“We Got Next” was highlighted during the first game of the NBA Finals, displaying first-time poll workers who were among the virtual fans, seated alongside basketball legends including Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Julius Erving.

Former President Barack Obama also made a surprise appearance in the virtual crowd during the game and used his appearance to thank poll workers who plan on participating in the upcoming elections.

In a release provided to The New York Times, More Than a Vote and the Legal Defense Fund claimed the second phase of their initiative would be targeted toward 11 Black voter hub cities in the south “where

significant poll worker shortages remain”, including Birmingham, Alabama, Houston, San Antonio and Montgomery, Alabama, but also battleground cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland and Flint, Michigan.

Elections officials across the country have cited a shortage of poll workers to staff in-person voting sites as a major problem for November’s election, which has changed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The shortage has been especially acute in Black communities, which have historically experienced longer wait times and have had fewer polling locations than many white communities.

In an earlier interview, Sherrilyn Ifill of the Legal Defense Fund said increasing the number of poll workers was “critical to

fighting attempts at voter suppression”. Ifill also said it was important to create trust among Black voters, a population that has been targeted by suppression efforts in the past and has traditionally relied on in-person voting even more so than other demographic groups.

More Than A Vote says its creators are focused on systemic, targeted voter suppression in our community and have a specific mission — to educate, energize and protect Black voters.

“Our organization is not here to tell you who to vote for,” the More Than A Vote statement message reads. “As individuals, we may choose to talk about specific policies or candidates, but as a team, we came together to focus on one issue this year: systemic racism’s impact on our right to vote.”

Celebrities flex their influencer power by urging people to vote, endorsing candidates by

Kirstie Burgess

STAFF WRITER

As the 2020 Election comes to a close, celebrities throughout America are encouraging their fans to vote as well as endorsing candidates.

There is no data that shows how celebrity endorsements impact the way their fans vote.

However, when Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift encouraged their fans to register to vote this year and in 2018, respectively, registration went up.

Cooper Lawrence, author of “Celebritocracy: the Misguided Agenda of Celebrity Politics in a Postmodern Democracy” told BBC News that although celebrities boost voter registration numbers, they haven’t con-

vinced fans on who they should vote for.

Despite this, Lawrence said celebrity endorsements may have a huge influence this election season.

One of the ways, Lawrence said, is because celebrities talk directly to people on social media.

Their publicist is not giving statements on their behalf, they get to talk directly to fans through a photo or even a Tweet.

The other way a celebrity’s endorsement matters is with who they are reaching. Lawrence mentioned younger generations are more likely to follow their favorite celebrities on social media platforms.

Historically, young people have lower voter turnout. So if a young fan

follows a politically outspoken celebrity, it may encourage them to not only vote, but select the candidate their respective celebrity endorsed.

Throughout this election campaign, celebrities have promoted civic participation among fans to allow them to not only get registered to vote, but also do it early and select a particular candidate.

For example, musician Ariana Grande collaborated with voter registration group Headcount to get fans registered to vote at concerts during her Sweetener World Tour in 2019. Her actions made it possible for 33,381 people to cast their ballots in the election this year.

Celebrities endorsing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris include Taylor

Swift, Demi Lovato and the original Broadway cast of Hamilton, among many others.

On Oct.7, Swift posted on Instagram a photo from her V Magazine editorial along with a photo of her holding custom cookies with “Biden Harris 2020” frosting.

Over the recent years, Swift has been increasingly vocal about her political opinions. She made headlines in 2018 during the midterms when, for the first time, she endorsed two Tennessee Democrats.

Lovato, came out with an anti-Trump song on Oct. 14 titled, “Commander in Chief.”

One fan posted a comment expressing their disappointment in Lovato for releasing the track “Some

fans feel like they can’t listen to you anymore,” the comment read.

Lovato responded, “I made a piece of art that stands for something I believe in. And I’m putting it out even at the risk of losing fans. I’ll take integrity in my work over sales any day.”

In 2016, Lovato endorsed Hilary Clinton and performed a short set at a campaign event in Iowa.

Hamilton, the 2015 play that swept the nation, is making headlines again and not because there is another Twitter watch party. On Oct. 16, part of the original cast held a virtual town hall supporting Biden and Harris.

There was a cast Q and A as well as a performance see

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2020 Election

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

In accordance with NCAA, SDSU gets Election Day off to encourage student-athletes to vote by

“At the end of the day, it is our civil duty to vote,” Blair said. “Sometimes we get so busy and wrapped up in our schedules that we forget to do simple things such as register to vote. I think it is a great thing that they’re doing it and I feel that it was needed because now there is more influence civil wise. It helps us pertain to our duty as a civilian.”

Football senior left tackle Kyle Spalding said it is valuable for all of his teammates to vote in the November election despite being in the middle of the season.

“That’s been a big process these last couple of weeks, we’ve been working with every student, making sure that they can find the time to register to vote,” Spalding said in a press conference. “It’s very important to pause things on election

day to give people the time they need to vote, especially with everything going on today. It’s been a big deal and it’s very important for us.”

SDSU football plays Oct. 31 at Utah State followed by a Friday night game on Nov. 6 against San Jose State at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.

Head Coach Brady Hoke said Election Day changes the practice schedule by two days from a regular week, but he recognizes the importance.

“It’s kind of funny because we get back from Utah State, and that will probably be at night, obviously, probably early Sunday morning,” Hoke said in a press conference.“Then we play on a Friday. So on (Nov. 3), obviously it’s important for our guys to get out and vote, and we believe in that. So it’ll be a short week, but

it’s worth it and we’ll be in good shape.”

For the first time in seven months, men’s basketball practiced at full speed. It is another program that will miss next Tuesday’s practice in order for players to exercise their right to vote.

Head Coach Brian Dutcher said Assistant Coach Jay Morris took charge to register players to vote.

“Jay Morris, one of our assistant coaches, he kind of took it as a task to make sure he got everybody registered,” Dutcher said in a press conference. “We got everybody registered extremely early. Hopefully, they have their ballots in hand and hopefully, they’ve already cast some of them. I know they’re all registered and I’m excited for them to have their vote counted.”

SDSU women’s soccer has been doing team workouts five days a week

despite the cancellation of their fall season. With this day off, they will be missing workouts to send in their ballots.

Senior defender Jordan Girman said head coach Mike Friesen told the entire team back in July to get registered to vote.

“Our coach initially was like, ‘We need to make sure we’re all registered to vote,’” she said. “I was pretty surprised he did that, but I was also like, ‘Wow, that’s really awesome.’”

With the entire team now registered to vote, Girman has pushed her teammates to not only get registered but to vote and do it early.

“I’m very vocal about exercising voting rights, and I have other teammates that are very vocal too,” she said. “We all came together and got registered to vote pretty early because we all realized that we need to.”

She wants student-athletes not just on-campus, but all across the country to use this opportunity to make their voices heard.

“I’m really grateful that the NCAA gave us this opportunity, and I hope all the student-athletes across the whole country take advantage of that and vote because it’s a serious one,” Girman said.

Update: 463 student-athletes, including the entirety of 18 of the 19 SDSU athletic teams, have registered to vote, which is 99.6% of the eligible athletes.

labor conditions. These farmworkers go to work and do their job, regardless of the weather conditions – rain, shine, through wildfires, and a pandemic.

Even though their jobs are so important to the well being of Americans, large corporations are unfairly compensating these individuals. For example, the infamous berry

company, Driscoll’s was exposed for paying their workers $6 for an entire day’s work.

Similarly, open discrimination of different ethnic groups and failures to denounce white supremacy, from the current administration poses a threat to the wellbeing of marginalized cultural groups.

The LGBTQ+ community,

transgender individuals, in particular, have been severely impacted and discriminated against by the Trump administration. A new Housing and Urban development rule now make it legal to discriminate against transgender individuals in a homeless shelter setting. This means a transgender woman can be legally turned away and

sent to a male homeless shelter, putting her life at risk, and vice-versa.

It is imperative to exercise your rights and vote in the 2020 Presidential election. The lives of undocumented people, the LGBTQ+ community, and countless other social groups are at risk depending on the outcome of the election.

Breven Honda

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In June, the NCAA announced the first Tuesday in November will be a day off so athletes can vote in the upcoming election.

As a result, San Diego State athletic fields, gymnasiums and practice facilities will be closed on Nov. 3.

Since the NCAA’s announcement to encourage voting, SDSU Athletics has been pushing all of its teams to go out and vote on Election Day. Aztec women’s volleyball Head Coach Brent Hilliard said he appreciates the NCAA’s decision because it gives the athletes the opportunity to exercise their civic duty and spread the word.

“I like it,” Hilliard said.

“That’s one area that is non-controversial. There are so many areas that are sensitive right now and it’s hard to take a side as far as what your true beliefs are.

When it comes to voting, that’s the easiest one that the (NCAA) has given us.

These girls have been asked to let their voices be heard.”

On Oct. 19, the volleyball team announced via Twitter every athlete is registered to vote.

Volleyball sophomore outside hitter Nya Blair said it is important for everyone to vote and said it is gratifying for the NCAA to encourage others to exercise their responsibility as a citizen.

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aisles of grocery stores would be barren. Everyone who lives in the U.S. benefits from the jobs of these undocumented and migrant workers, yet many Americans are quick to find a way to dehumanize and turn a blind eye to unfair compensation and

Photo by Kyle Betz The San Diego State football practice field next to the SDSU Sports Deck was empty on June 7 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although football is back, the practice field will be empty yet again on Nov. 3 as student-athletes are encouraged by the NCAA and SDSU to exercise their right to vote.

13 2020 Election Opinion: Trump’s voter fraud fear-mongering is part of a plan that threatens the peaceful transition of power Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

by

Mary Claire Toth

CONTRIBUTOR

With November 3rd rapidly approaching, all attention has turned to the possible outcome of Election Day. Although it is unclear whether President Trump or former Vice President Biden will win the election, voters should prepare for the worst.

Should President Trump be re-elected, we will have to endure another four years of misery. Unfortunately, there is another dark reality we must consider. If Trump loses the upcoming election, he may refuse to concede it.

Donald Trump is in a position to harm democracy no matter the outcome of the election. President

The Daily Aztec

Trump’s loss of the upcoming election threatens the peaceful transition of power at the heart of American democracy.

In late September, Donald Trump affirmed his disobedience to democracy.

Trump went on to profess, “I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster ... get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very ... there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation.”

This is a direct threat to democracy, to Americans and the Constitution.

President Trump has made it clear he will not accept a loss from this election. He began his scheme by planting seeds of doubt in the minds of

Graphic by Emily Burgess

his followers. Anticipating a potential loss on election night, Trump invented threats of voter fraud and rigged elections. His vigorous complaints have prompted his army of followers to dismiss the idea of his loss.

Donald Trump and his followers are ready to dis-

pute any unfavorable outcome of the election.

Democrat officials are worried Trump will declare victory after election night before the majority of mailin ballots have been counted. If Trump leads Biden on election night, Democrats fear Trump will send his lawyers to court to cease

the counting of mail ballots.

Trump has trained for this moment by declaring mailin ballots fraudulent, and his voter base is ready to blindly support his stance.

In preparation, Democratic lawyers have been working with the Biden campaign to examine election laws concerning the Constitution rules for calculating electoral votes.

The grim reality is Donald Trump is in a position to slash the Achilles of democracy. He is prepared to destroy the peaceful transition of power at the heart of our democracy to get what he wants. On Election Day, we must be vigilant and watch his every move – our democracy and freedom depend on it.

Opinion: Donald Trump is wrong. Voting by mail is safe. by

Catherine Van Weele

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COVID-19 has altered nearly every facet of life as we know it, and will certainly play a major role in this year’s election. Not only will COVID-19 responses and management plans of politicians affect who people will vote for, but the way in which we vote will drastically change.

In response to COVID-19, states have expanded voting access. In several states, including California, there is universal vote-by-mail in which all registered voters are sent mail-in ballots automatically. Dozens of other states are allowing

people to request mail-in ballots without having to provide a reason why. Only five states will still require voters to meet certain criteria in order to qualify to receive a mail-in ballot, such as having a disability or being an active military member.

Vote-by-mail is a popular option among voters. In the past, Californian voters have been able to request absentee ballots. In 2018, about two-thirds of voters submitted their ballots in the mail and it is likely an even higher proportion will vote-by-mail this election.

This is because vote-bymail makes voting easy and convenient.

Graphic by Emily Burgess

Congress created a law in the 1840’s that mandated presidential elections to be held every four years on the first Tuesday of November. While this may have been the best time for people in the past, in today’s society, the middle of the week is probably the worst possible time to schedule a national election. People usually have work or other obligations on Tuesdays and the polls are only open during a certain time frame.

Some people may not have the time or the option the leave work to go vote at the polls in-person.

When voting by mail, voters don’t face this obstacle.

Instead, they can fill out their ballot in the comfort of their own home and take as much time as needed.

Then, to return their ballot, they can either mail it back or place it in the nearest drop box location. They can also track their ballot online to ensure their vote gets accepted.

Past research has shown that vote-by-mail can re-

sult in higher levels of voter turnout, particularly because it aims at those who may not vote otherwise.

Colorado implemented universal vote-by-mail in 2013 and has since seen an increase in turnout among racial minority groups, low-income individuals, high school dropouts and younger voters -- a group that is notoriously known for having low voter turnout.

Looking back at the primaries earlier this year, we have already seen a significant increase in voter turnout in several states as more people are opting to vote-by-mail. In California, there is a record number of people who have already submitted their ballots by mail for the general election. It is important we continue to see these high levels of voter turnout up until Election Day. The United States historically has low levels of voter turnout compared to other advanced, industrial democracies. Mail-in

ballots can be part of the solution to getting a better voter turnout rate. Going forward, all states should adopt universal vote-bymail policies to allow more people to vote. We are already seeing the positive impact of universal mail-in ballots. When more people participate, voting becomes an even more powerful tool of our democracy.

Contrary to what the president may be saying about mail-in ballots, voteby-mail is extremely secure and reliable. Experts have consistently confirmed voter fraud is incredibly rare and has no impact on election results. It also does not favor one party over another. It merely increases voter participation across the board.

Whether you choose to vote in-person or vote-bymail, make sure your voice gets heard. Get informed and help make sure your friends and family’s votes count too. The power is in the people, so get out the vote!

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2020 Election

Nov. 3, 2020 Vote

Opinion: It’s important you vote to protect those who can’t by

Gaby Jose

CONTRIBUTOR

The basic human rights of countless marginalized groups of people are at risk this Election Day. The 2020 Presidential Election is by far the most important election of the past several decades. Our votes are especially important for those who are unable to vote including undocumented individuals and legally established permanent residents of the United States who are not citizens.

President Trump is not afraid to speak out against and target undocumented individuals, especially Latinos, yet they do not have a voice. In September 2017, President Trump attempted to end President Obama’s executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

This program grants lawful status to qualifying individuals who were brought to the United States before the age of 16 and protects over 800,000 individuals.

Graphic by Emily Burgess

It is to be noted that DACA is not a path to citizenship. It is solely a safeguard from deportation and allows qualifying individuals to obtain work permits, state driver’s licenses, and receive DACA-specific financial aid for higher education.

There is a common misconception that any undocumented individual qualifies for DACA; however, this is quite the opposite of the truth. To qualify for DACA, the applicant must have arrived in the United States before the age of 16, be younger than

the age of 31 on June 15, 2012, and have never been convicted of a felony or significant misdemeanor relating to violence or drugs. If the individual is to be convicted of a felony or drug-related misdemeanor, their legal status will be rescinded and they may face deportation.

Qualifying individuals are often referred to as DREAMers, in reference to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act issued by President Obama in 2012 that did not pass in Congress. This act would

have granted qualifying undocumented immigrants legal and permanent residency in the United States.

Despite not passing Congress, the term DREAMers is still used to refer to these undocumented individuals.

Even being protected under DACA and having legal status in the United States, these individuals and other undocumented individuals are unable to vote.

Our current President will keep attempting to repeal DACA and these DREAMers if reelected, while the individuals most impacted

by this do not have a say in the matter.

We must vote to decide their future and to fight for their protection.

Protecting undocumented immigrants in the United States under DACA is imperative for the growth of our country. Our immigration system is outdated, but it is also important to recognize drastic change cannot and does not occur overnight. The implementation and safeguard of DACA play a crucial role in the positive progression of our country.

There has been much slander in the media against migrant and undocumented workers, like how they ‘steal our jobs’ and they ‘steal spots in our universities,’ but these hardworking individuals do the most to fuel progress in our country. The United States is built on the exploitation and bloodshed of other racial groups.

Without undocumented and migrant workers, the see

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Opinion: Can we have political conversations without hostility? by

Grace Brady

CONTRIBUTOR

In a country where it seems we don’t agree on much, we can all agree on one thing - the first presidential debate was ridiculously laughable.

There is no need to relive what happened, but it got me to thinking - can we have political conversations without hostility?

I wasn’t the only one left with that thought.

During the Vice Presidential debate, an eighth-grader named Brecklynn Brown voiced her concern and asked a question to the candidates.

“When I watch the news, all I see is argu-

ing between Democrats and Republicans,” Brown said. “When I watch the news, all I see is citizens fighting against citizens.

When I watch the news, all I see are two candidates from opposing parties trying to tear each other down. If our leaders can’t get along, how are the citizens supposed to get along?”

The world isn’t a perfect place and inevitably, everyone will not get along. However, when two presidential candidates cannot share a stage without creating a spectacle – a laughable debate becomes more alarming than amusing.

Presidential debates discuss important,

life-altering issues that determine the outcome of our country and without civil communication, as we saw in the first debate, the issues get put on the backburner while the immature actions are what people discuss. How does the discourse at the highest levels of our political system impact how everyday Americans talk about the issues that impact them the most.

There is no way to avoid the controversy that comes with bringing up a political issue because everyone has their own opinion. However, when these opinions turn into personal attacks political conver-

Graphic by Grace Brady

sations are no longer effective. This devolution of political conversation is what Americans witnessed at the first debate.

Yet, it doesn’t always have to be that way.

In the absence of positive examples from our leaders we can be an example for others. Take a minute to hear people out, let them express how they feel. When you do, they’ll be more

inclined to do the same.

At the end of the day, we are all human. I feel confident in saying most of us want what is best for all people. It is easy to villainize someone for thinking differently than you and a lot harder to try to reach a common ground with one another.

Take the more challenging route and discover we are all much more similar than we think.