Students encouraged to vote

By Molly Leaverton

In anticipation of the upcoming California special election, the Santa Clara College Republicans and College Democrats are sponsoring voter registration drives and plan to work together in an effort to increase political awareness and voter turn out on campus.

As the election date of Nov. 8 approaches, the College Republicans and Democrats encourage students, even those that are from out of state, to register in California and vote.

"Students should care about the Special Election because these issues are not only going to directly affect California State residents, but also students who are living in California," said Grant Cassingham, president of the College Republicans.

Christopher Lee, president of the Political Science Students Association, applauded the organizations for their work.

"Bipartisanship is a very cooperative endeavor between both the Santa Clara Republicans and Democrats, they work together to make sure that voting does get accomplished and that as many students are enfranchised to vote as possible," he said.

The special election is composed of eight propositions that have been placed on the ballot through the initiative process. Each voter will be asked to vote either "yes" or "no" on each proposition.

Each initiative is a separate vote, so some may pass while others may not.

Both parties agree that these initiatives will affect social, financial, medical and educational issues that both the College Republicans and Democrats feel passionately about.

Republicans believe that the majority of the initiatives will help California, "Its going to help the state a lot economically. Socially, the Republican Party understands that we just can't spend, spend, spend what we don't have, in the state particularly," said Cassingham.

However, the Democrats feel that most initiatives in this election should be voted down.

"The College Democrats believe that this election is crucial to the future of California state politics. It's really important that we defeat this election to kill any momentum that Arnold has left and to claim the Governor's mansion in 2006," said Roey Rahmil, co-president of the College Democrats.

The College Democrats and Republicans have agreed to participate in a debate on the three propositions they feel will be the most important to students: propositions 73,74 and 75.

The "Special Elections Showdown," will be held in the Bronco on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 9:15 p.m.

The debaters will argue the nomination of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court justice in addition to the propositions.

"The debate is going to be an awesome opportunity for students to come out and learn both sides of the issues and also an opportunity for people in both parties to convince students about how important this election is and how critical their voice will be," Rahmil said.

The proposition that the PSSA as well as the College Democrats and Republicans believe will incite the most response from the audience is Proposition 73, which prohibits physicians from terminating a minor's pregnancy until the parents of the minor have been notified for 48 hours.

"Republicans feel a draw towards especially 73, it's certainly the hot button issue this year with abortion you know it's not necessarily popular with simply pro-life activists, but it's something that I think the Republican Party feels is a step in the right direction," said Cassingham.

In response, Democrats argue that proposition 73 is a gross violation of a minor's right to privacy and encourage their party members to vote against it.