Vol. 106, Iss. 11 | Tuesday, November 8, 2016
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
Flathatnews.com | Follow
ELECTION DAY
Polls open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m.
Residents of One Tribe Place, Tribe Square, Brown and Sorority Court vote at the Williamsburg Community Building. 401 N. Boundary Street Williamsburg, VA 23185
Residents of all other dorms vote at the United Methodist Church. 500 Jamestown Road Williamsburg, VA 23185
William and Mary student IDs, Virginia IDs and passports are all valid forms of voter identification. KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT
Polls open in the City of Williamsburg today at 6 a.m. Voting will go until 7 p.m. at the United Methodist Church on Jamestown Road and the Stryker Center for students.
After long race, students head to the polls
Campus organizations register 1,500 students for heated election NIA KITCHIN // FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER Throughout election season this fall, voter registration efforts at the College of William and Mary were in full swing. Students involved in different organizations, including the Democratic Party of Virginia and Virginia21, led this registration effort and worked towards the goal of registering all unregistered voters on campus. Together these two organizations registered 1,500 previouslyunregistered voters. According to these organizations, making sure students are registered ensures that the views of students at the College are represented in politics. Voter Registration Director for Virginia21 Greg Akerman ’19 explained that Virginia21 is a non-partisan organization on campus that advocates for students’ issues. Chapters of Virginia21 register voters across the state. At the College, they registered voters by tabling at the Sadler Center. Akerman said they trained new registers and made sure to integrate people who had done registration before with those who were inexperienced. Those registering students were from
In race dominated by 2 candidates, another 16 Independent candidates in Virginia represent third parties, or just themselves SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Many students voting in the City of Williamsburg will, like the rest of the United States, be casting votes for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. However, in the state of Virginia, there are also 16 official write-in candidates for president on the ballot. While Virginia voters can write in the name of any individual for president, the Board of Elections only counts separate totals for write-in candidates that have also filed a Joint Declaration of Intent to be a Write-In Candidate. Some of these 16 candidates are the nominees of third parties selected through the convention process, and others are running completely independently. Many of them were inspired to run after the presidential
primaries, while others said that they have long felt that they are not represented in presidential elections because of the twoparty system. Robert Buchanan Robert Buchanan said that, in March 2016, he decided that even with approximately 20 candidates left in the primaries, there was no one who he thought represented him. He decided to put together a website and start qualifying to be on the ballot in states. “You can see the people who are running in the major and minor parties, and I couldn’t vote for any of them and I started looking for alternatives and I couldn’t find any,” Buchanan said. “I’ve been involved on the periphery of politics for a long time but I’ve never run a political campaign. I do have 34 years of experience working for the federal government and worked for the Navy and the Navy Reserves, and have See WRITE-INS page 3
Today’s Weather
Index Profile News Opinions Variety Sports
2 3-4 5-6 7-8 Insert
Sunny, High 70, Low 48
Inside SPORTS
all different parties and ideologies, and they managed to register more than 200 voters. “It wasn’t just the Young Democrats — we had some Libertarians, some from the NAACP, a lot of people were involved,” Akerman said. “We had people from all sorts of political backgrounds registering voters. People say they always see people being registered and I think that’s a sign of a great registration effort.” The College’s Campus Organizer for the Democratic Party of Virginia Vickie Goldsby ’17 recruited students to register students all around campus. Goldsby said that at their peak they had 10 people out at a time. Even though this registration effort was through a partisan organization, Goldsby said that party identification was not a criterion for registering students except if they wanted to sign up for commit to vote cards. These are voting reminders that get sent to students’ mail. “We only asked them their party identity if we were doing commit to vote cards,” Goldsby said. “It was never a criteria to
get registered to vote. Even if they were screaming, ‘I’m a Trump supporter,’ we would be like, ‘Alright, are you registered to vote?’” Vice President of the Young Democrats Sahil Mehrota ’17 said that it helped registration efforts to have had competitive midterm elections last year because many students wanted to register to vote for that election. Therefore, there was less work to do this year. However, Mehrotra said that there are about 1500 students who come to the College every year who are not registered to vote in Williamsburg, if they are registered at all. He said that in 2012, 75 percent of students were registered to vote, and 75 percent of those students did vote. In 2014, the registration rate was 70.7 percent. Akerman added to these statistics that the majority of new registrants in Williamsburg come from the College and that new registrations in general went up 17 percent in Virginia this year. “So the College has a history of being civically engaged,” See REGISTRATION page 3
To vote or not to vote: That is the question for some In polarizing election, some students vote third party or not at all SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
For some students, the U.S. presidential election today will be their first time voting. Others will not vote at all. “My plan is to not go to a poll and not participate in the election,” James Crafford ’20 said. Crafford said that he identifies as an independent, and if he were to vote thirdparty, he would vote for Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. However, he does not plan on participating in the election. “There’s no doubt that I care about the well-being of this country,” Crafford said. “I really do. But at the same time, when the two possible future presidents are either, kind of, cons or outlandish idiots, I don’t see a moral reason as to why I should have to choose between the two.” Other students voted early by absentee ballot and said that they are nervously waiting for the final results. Alton Hipps ’20, a first-time voter, said that the thought of Trump winning the election is very nervewracking. Hipps voted for Clinton. “It seems to be getting closer and closer between the two candidates, so that’s a little scary,” Hipps said. “After everything I’m seeing right now, I think I’ll be ok. But it’s a little nerve-wracking. [If Trump wins] I’d be in shock for a while. Moving to Canada is tempting. I don’t know, I hadn’t thought
about it. I try to ignore it.” Some students who don’t support Trump are choosing to cast their votes for third-party candidates because they do not want to support Clinton, either. Some are still undecided. First-time voter Cameron Terhorst ’20 said he is still not sure who he will be casting a vote for, but he does plan on voting. “I’ll probably vote third party because I’m not a supporter of either of the primary candidates right now,” Terhorst said. “I don’t agree with Trump’s policies and I don’t trust Hillary due to recent events. Lying about the emails — that’s a big one, and her involvement with so many large corporations and banks, I feel like she’s definitely in their pocket and I don’t know if I trust her … she’s got a streak of not being honest.” Terhorst said that while he is still not sure, he is most likely going to vote for Stein. “I just agree with more of her policies than Trump, obviously,” Terhorst said. “I don’t feel like she’s going to win, but I feel like as with voting for third parties that it’ll have an influence over whoever the winning candidate is. I support some of the things the Green Party supports. I just don’t agree morally with either of the candidates so I can’t see myself voting for either. So ultimately it just comes down to me voting for the third-party candidate and hoping that that provides some kind of influence over whoever wins because I think they’re
pretty progressive, and I’d like to see that have some sort of effect on whoever comes out on top.” General Secretary of the College Socialists Nico Villarreal ’19 said he will vote for Stein, but he is displeased with the four main candidates on the ballot. “While I do not think that Jill Stein would make for a good president, I’m not saying any of the candidates of the four parties, four national parties I should say, have good candidates,” Villarreal said. “I think I dislike Gary Johnson the most out of all the candidates. But basically I support Jill Stein full-knowing she will never become president, in fact in part because of that.” Other students, like Chris Harrington ’20, are voting for Trump because they do not want to support what they see as Clinton’s corruption. Harrington said that if Clinton is elected it would confirm his suspicions about what she had committed. “I would be really disappointed that we voted for corruption knowingly,” Harrington said. “If Trump wins, I’ll be content, because I voted for him after all, and I want to see him change what’s going on. But I don’t think he would win a second term. I think the Democrats would certainly field someone better next time.” Harrington said that, while his vote for Trump was a show of support for the Republican nominee, it was also a vote See ELECTIONS page 3
2016 Basketball Preview
Check out Flat Hat Sports’ annual basketball insert for preseason breakdowns of the men’s and women’s teams.
see INSERT