The Shorthorn - A Narrow Margin

HOME

Columns

A Narrow Margin

Written by Collins Watson and Bess Alvarez

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 07:39 PM

There are many reasons why students should vote today in local Arlington elections.

The first, and least important, is the give-aways. The Mavs Vote Coalition is passing out free $5 and $10 coupons to Applebees and McDonalds to the first 1,000 students who go vote at the early voting site at city hall which is located three blocks from campus on the corner of Abram and Pecan streets.

They will also be handing out free “Mavs Vote!” T-shirts to the first 100 students. For those who don’t want to walk, there will be a shuttle making a constant loop from the University Center to the polling site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Many big issues in Arlington are decided by very narrow margins. The Dallas Cowboys stadium passed by 52 percent to 48 percent. The Crime District Bill (which many of us were very passionate about) lost by less than 2,000 votes. We had more than 2,000 university students vote for Homecoming King a few months ago!

Many issues important to students, like public safety, mass transit, downtown development, “college town,” and even getting a grocery store near campus, can be greatly influenced by a small group of voters.

Having a big turnout at the city election will help tremendously in our efforts to secure an early voting location on campus for the national election in November. That would encourage many candidates, including those running for U.S. president, to visit the university.

It will also encourage more students to vote on an upcoming bond election, which could potentially invest more than $10 million into rebuilding the streets and sidewalks of downtown—a vital first step before developers transform our downtown from a sea of used car dealerships and bail bondsmen into a thriving, cultural, pedestrian environment with restaurants, retail, bars, nice apartments, parks and outdoor cafes.

Having more than 1,000 students vote in this election would make headlines, bring prestige to our university and change the nature of Arlington city politics.

Each one of us has the power to contribute significantly to this endeavor. Tell your friends! Drag your friends!

Go vote!

— Collins Watson is a biomedical engineering graduate student and former Student Congress president. Bess Alvarez is a geology junior and incoming Student Congress vice president.

Views: 1973 | E-mail

Comments (1)

1 An Informed Electorate is the Best Elect
Written by Frank Perera, on 04-30-2008 10:28
Having been involved with Student Government for over three years, I am happy to see that students are starting to care about politics, especially in the government that affects your daily life.
The only problem I have with Mavs Vote is that the people who do care and attempt to educate themselves about political issues are trying to get people to vote through the means of propaganda and free give-aways (also known as bribes) as opposed to informing the students of the candidates and issues The only thing worse than a small electorate is an un-informed electorate. For example, look at how many people came out to vote in the elections when the cowboy\'s stadium was on the ballot? Do you think the majority of that electorate knew anything on the issues of the city? Do you think they know who Dr. Robert Cluck is? (Besides that he was bringing them the Cowboys) With an uninformed electorate you will have a government that does not carry out the greater good, which is many times against the majority, but rather the will of the mob.
The following quotes are from one of the most intellectual framers of our republic:

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
--James Madison

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.
--James Madison

As you can see, UT Arlington is attempting to give our students the necessary knowledge to fight off attacks on our liberties, but shuttling herds of uninformed voters is not in accord with these aims.
I encourage that we no longer engage in the practices of certain political machines and ensure that the people running the Mavs Vote not present a bias in encouraging people to vote. For example, saying that we are trying to get students out to vote for the bond package. We should make sure that we present both sides of all the issues in order to have a meaningful impact on our government.

Report Abuse

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 January 2009 05:26 PM )

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]