Saturday, May 21, 2005

Votes for dorm points?

Judy Fiske, an aldermanic candidate in the First Ward who lost to Cheryl Wollin on April 5th has just filed a suit against more than 200 votes that were cast by Northwestern students in the First Ward's sixth precinct. According to the suit, these votes were bought:

Fiske's lawyer, Richard Means, said NU illegally tipped the April 5 election in favor of winner Cheryl Wollin when it held a post-election party in Norris University Center and granted points to voters living in residential colleges. Residential college residents earn points and exchange them for housing priority.

Now this sounds pretty bogus to me, especially knowing that Fiske has had it in for student voters for awhile. She made the comment that since students are not full time residents, their voting rights and stake in Evanston are questionable. (A) Many students are fulltime residents because they stay here in the summer as well and (B) All students have a stake in the community--moreso here in Evanston than where they hail from, and most people are excited when students vote!

Basically, Cheryl Wollin made an effort to reach out to NU students and Judy Fiske did not. Not only did she not make an effort, she used very alienating lanugage against us. What does she expect?

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