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Temperatures may be dipping across the state of Maine, but discussion about tomorrow’s election is heating up as Mainers prepare to head to the polls.
While pollsters statewide are busy readying for the election and counting absentee ballots, activists at the University of Maine are preparing the campus community to vote.
For many students at UMaine, this will be the first presidential election they’ve voted in. Several groups and individuals are still working to make sure voters are informed when they go to the polls on Tuesday.
Two professors of new media at UMaine, Jon Ippolito and Joline Blais, created the U-Me Vote Web site when they became concerned about the lack of political discussion among students in their classes.
“It was kind of missing,” Blais said. “It seemed like there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about the election.”
The purpose behind creating the site, according to Blais, was to remove the “dampening of political dialogue” on campus.
“Speaking our minds about something that bothers us or interests us is part of the political process,” Blais said. “Even speaking our minds about an issue is an exercise of power.”
Ippolito said the reactions he got from his students indicated interest but confusion as well.
“There were some really simple logistical things that were holding them back,” he said. “Procedural questions like ‘Where do I vote?’, ‘What do I bring with me?’”
Ippolito said that first-time voters were also feeling a little more timid about voting than people who had been through an election before.
“There were other things that were more intimidation with wielding a very powerful responsibility for the first time,” he said. “It’s a habit for us and our fingers start to itch come November. This is something that we’re used to, but for the average college student this is the first time that they have ever voted.”
U-Me Vote offers a nonpartisan look at candidates and citizen initiatives that will be appearing on the ballot. The site is designed as a forum where anyone can add information, links or opinions about election topics.
One of the missions of the site is to encourage people to get their news from each other and stimulate dialogue on campus, according to Blais.
“What’s powerful about this is not the Web page but the stimulus for getting people talking to each other and what can come by getting people talking to each other,” she said.
One thing Blais considers a crisis is when Americans trust their news from single sources – sources that may be biased or have a certain slant. She said the U-Me Vote site encourages seeking multiple sources for information and getting the news from each other.
“You can’t produce a complex view of the world with sound bites,” she said.
Blais and Ippolito both say the reaction from students to the site has been a positive one. Blais noted that general questions about the election, and issues began appearing in new media folders on FirstClass after the U-Me Vote site was launched.
Ippolito said he even changed a few of his assignments. Students in his classes today were told to arrive with proof that they’re ready to vote.
“I can’t force them to vote but I can make sure they’re prepared,” he said.
Potential voters can check out the U-MeVote Web site at http://newmedia.umaine.edu/stillwater/ume_vote/.
While the creators of U-Me Vote are doing their best to send educated voters to the polls, the Progressive Student Alliance is also preparing student voters.
Elizabeth Anderson, treasurer of the organization, will be spending election day rallying campus voters and making sure information about the candidates and issues is accessible to them.
Anderson said the most common reasons she hears for young people not voting are that they don’t have enough time, and they don’t know enough.
“I can’t really help them too much with time, though we’ve tried,” she said.
Anderson, who is also a student senator at UMaine, helped sponsor a resolution to ask professors to excuse students from classes in order to volunteer at the polls or drive to their home towns to vote.
The second complaint Anderson hears about students not knowing enough about issues is the one she and the PSA are actively trying to correct.
On Tuesday, Anderson and the rest of the PSA will be stationed in the Totman Lounge of Memorial Union to staff phone banks, send reminders out on FirstClass and call prospective voters.
PSA members will be visiting residence halls on Election Day and bringing students who want to vote to the Union.
Informational source cards with Web site addresses explaining issues will also be available so that students can get a nonpartisan, detailed description about what they’re voting on.
“I think it’s very important to vote, but I also think it’s very important for people to be educated voters,” Anderson said. “I also believe in the right to apathy … I don’t think someone should be forced to vote.”
Anderson, who is president of the College Libertarians and vice president of Libertarian party in the state of Maine, is a founding member of the PSA.
Originally formed as Students for Dean, the PSA evolved into a nonpartisan group when Gov. Howard Dean dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party nomination.
“After Dean dropped, out we were still really active, and we decided to take a nonpartisan approach,” Anderson said.
Students who joined the PSA after the transition represent many different political parties active on campus, just some more than others, according to Anderson.
“We don’t have too many republicans, but they’re completely welcome to join,” Anderson said.
