Weird......The CSUN Elections Didn't Go as Planned

Once again CSUN Associated Students' electronic voting system failed to produce the results expected and the elections were cancelled. After spending about $14,000 on elections the system still failed. It failed because the campus consultant who built it did a bad job at it and because he left the campus he isn't here to fix it.

Then Student Affairs was left to deal with the problem, which they obviously didn't.

One of the main reasons why the Elections Committee didn't want to go through with the elections was because some of the ballots already had candidates pre-selected. Because some students wouldn't notice that, only voting for their friend the committee felt the votes weren't credible.

This came after the Sundial notified them of the issue.

Now the students who voted must re-cast their vote on Nov. 12 and 13 for their Senators. As it was 1,590 students voted almost about as much as those who voted during both days of the last election. It's highly unlikely whether they will get the same results using paper ballots.

How Many Students Voted Last Semester? Not Enough but Who's Counting?

If Students Can't Take a Minute to Vote Online What Will Happen On Nov. 4

For the first time Associated Student Senate elections were completely electronic and according to officials resulted in no major issues. This election was expected to produce a higer informed voter turnout.

Students could vote from the comfort of their home or go to one of the four polling stations setup by AS for the senator that would be representing their college. Still this didn't keep students from completely disregarding it and probable not voting.

Last semester only 4.6 percent out of the almost 39,000 students enrolled at CSUN voted.

While some students walked without a glance past the polling stations or the calls from volunteers to participate, some decided to stop and vote. A testament to the apathy of students, who could careless about politics or anything that could affect them.

“I didn’t really know who I voted for I just picked one,” Betty Li, freshman business major said. “Next time I should know more and make the right decision.”

Still some students took advantage of the voter guides available at the booths before they voted for the senator that would be representing them, like Nareg Bostanian.

“I read the guide before I voted, but I would’ve like to have known about it before,” said the freshman undecided major.

Stephanie Vogler, a freshman health science major, while realizing the importance of voting said she would “probably vote” as she walked past the polling station.

As she was reading her voter guide Katherine Opitz, senior broadcast journalism major reflected on the apathy of not only students, but voters in general.

“There’s an imbalance between people not coming out to vote and people voting who are not informed,” Opitz said. “I think a lot of people don’t know the overall issues.”

AS Vice President, Nicole Umali agreed that to a certain extent students on campus are apathetic.

“Students are somewhat apathetic because we tend to live in our bubbles and not know what’s going on at times,” Umali said. “Voters in general will come out if there’s an issue that grabs their attention.”

Some More Projections "Done Right" by FiveThirtyEight

The creators of FiveThirtyEight tend to vote Democratic, something to keep in mind when looking at their stats. However they claim that their political preferences don't affect their projections. For more on their methodology click here.

Presidential Election Projections by FiveThirtyEight

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Here is their mission statement: Most broadly, to accumulate and analyze polling and political data in way that is informed, accurate and attractive. Most narrowly, to give you the best possible objective assessment of the likely outcome of upcoming elections.

CNN Poll Shows Obama's Slightly Ahead

CSUN graduate student arrested in Tehran!

Esha Momeni has been arrested in Tehran while working on her thesis project for Cal. State Northridge on October 15. According to Change For Equality, an Iranian women's movement, Ms. Momeni was arrested for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving. The subject of her Master's thesis was on the Iranian women's movement.

Ms. Momeni was part of the Change 4 Equality campaign in California. She went to Iran a couple months ago for the one-million signature petition which demanding change to discriminatory laws.

According to CNN.com, " Momeni is being held in a section of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison that is managed by the Intelligence Ministry, the group said. Evin Prison houses many Iranian dissidents and political prisoners, and it is where four Iranian-Americans were held for several months last year. All have been released."

World Organization Against Torture's Appeal for Immediate Release of Esha Momeni reports,
"This appeal also calls for the government of Iran to protect other women's activists and human rights defenders, including from judicial harassment. It notes that Iran has an obligation to do so according to the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international human rights instruments, all of which Iran has ratified."

CNN.com also reported that "Iranian Officials had promised Ms. Momeni's family that she would be immediately released if news of her arrest were not published, the organization said."

I'm personally sending my prayers to Esha Momeni and her family. I commend her for being extremely brave and wish to meet heronce she returns safely to the United States.

Obama raises $150 million

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced on Sunday that it broke its own record raising more than $150 million in September.

He's previous record was of $67 million in one month. The Democrat's campaign released the figure Sunday, one day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission.

The previous record for the single biggest monthly fund-raising month was held by Senator John F. Kerry, when he collected $44 million in March 2004 after clinching the Democratic nomination.

Senator McCain outraged over New York Times story on wife

John McCain's campaign is expressing outrage over a New York Times story that focuses on Cindy McCain's marriage to the Arizona senator, including her miscarriages, her past addiction to painkillers and her failure in Washington to fit in.

The campaign's outrage comes on the heels of a letter Cindy McCain's attorney, John Dowd, wrote earlier this month to New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller accusing him of biased coverage for not pursuing more information about Obama's personal life.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama," Dowd wrote in the letter, which the campaign has made public now in response to the latest report by the Times.

"The New York Times has stooped lower than this campaign ever imagined possible in an attempt to discredit a woman whose only apparent sin is being married to the man that would oppose that paper's preferred candidate, Barack Obama, in his quest for the presidency," McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb wrote in the statement released Saturday.

Colin Powell will vote for Obama!

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the he will vote for Senator Barack Obama on NBC's Meet the Press.

"I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama," said Colin Powell

He continued by questionining the negative campagin Senator John McCain has launched linking Obama to the 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

"I think that's inappropriate. I understand what politics is about -- I know how you can go after one another, and that's good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for," he said.

Senator McCain said on Fox News that he admires Powell and his announcement, "doesn't come as a surprise."

Powell served as Secretary of State under President Bush from 2001 to 2005.

Palin on SNL

Registered Voters

In Los Angeles County we have 5,769,647 eligible voters as of Sept. 5 and about 69 percent of them are registered according to the Secretary of State.



You can check it by county here.

Palin Abused Power

After weeks of investigation the Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her powers and violated ethics when she fired a state official who refused to fire her state trooper, brother-in-law, according to a legislative investigation.

However Palin said she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan due to a budget dispute. While Monegan maintains that he was fired because he refused to fire Palin's brother-in-law Mike Wooten, after a bombardment of demands from Palin, her husband and staff to fire the trooper.

ApparentlyWooten was involved in a bad divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.

Palin's husband, Todd, said the reason he made inquiries into Wooten was because the trooper behaved inappropriately by driving under the influence, shooting a moose without a permit, threatening Palin's father and striking his own stepson with a low-level electric Taser.

The report doesn't say that the reasons why Palin wanted him fired were legitimate, it was the means that weren't such as using her husband and staff to conduct a campaign against Monegan.

Palin spent part of the weekend trying clean up the mess that came with the investigation.

Meet The Press - in regards to SNL's new skit!!

Tina Fey has done it again, this time with the help of Queen Latifah! Enjoy :)

Bailout Passed!

After a long week on Capitol Hill the $700 billion bailout plan has been passed by the Senate, House of Representatives and signed by President Bush on Friday.

President Bush said on Friday, "[that] by coming together on this legislation, we have acted boldly to help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country. We have shown the world that the United States of America will stabilize our financial markets and maintain a leading role in the global economy."

On Friday the House passed the bill on Friday with a vote of 263-171.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday after the vote, "we confront a crisis of historic magnitude that has the ability to do serious injury not simply to our economy, but to the American people: not just to Wall Street, but to everyday Americans on Main Street."

Officials say the final cost of the bailout will be far less than $700 billion because the government will resell the assets that it buys.

The money will be disbursed in parts allowing the U.S. Treasury to buy up billions in bad mortgages debts. Congress able to block the second $350 billion.

Don't Vote

A new campaign to persuade young voters!

DREAM Act Shot Down Again

This past Tuesday Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed Sen. Gilbert Cedillo's California Dream Act. Literally a dream for the thousand's of undocumented student's throughout the nation who are struggling to receive a higher education without the help from financial aid or loans. It is estimated that about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school every year.

The DREAM Act would grant those students or AB 540 students the right to apply and receive State University Grants, UC Grants, scholarships, and loan programs which are all funded by non-state monies.

CSUN is home to many of these students, in fact they have started their own group DREAM's to be Heard. Two semesters ago they along with supporters successfully pushed for Associated Student's to back the DREAM Act, as it was about to go to the governor's desk.

The students who attend a college or university are some of the hardest working students, working three to four jobs to pay for tuition on their own while taking a full load of classes. Some where brought to this country as infants with no say in deciding to immigrate to this country.

They are also some of the brightest who, despite barrier after barrier, continue to excel.

You can hear some of the stories of these AB 540 students while at a press conference in Washington D.C. as they advocated for the DREAM Act last fall to no avail.

In the face of budget cuts to California higher education institutions which leads to increases in tuition and fewer students being admitted to universities, AB 540 students will have an even tougher time gaining access to higher education.

It is because of the current budget for California universities that the governor said he refused to sign the DREAM Act.

For now AB 540 students will have to wait and plan their next attempt at passing this legislation, however this blow has left many of them disappointed and exhausted.

Biden Vs. Palin

Here's a short clip of last nights vice presidential debates and in a few hours you can expect a more in depth post on last nights debate.

Senate OK's Bailout

The modified $700 billion bailout plan was approved by the Senate putting pressure on the House of Representatives.

"The strong vote is helpful. We believe the house has a better chance to pass this bill than the one it considered on Monday," a Republican leadership aide said after Wednesday night's vote. "Having said that, we're going to need more Democrat and Republican votes to pass this bill in the House."

74-25 was the final vote in the Senate on Wednesday night with large bipartisan support.

Under the modified plan Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would buy up to $700 billion in bad mortgage-related securities and other bad assets but it increases the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) cap from $100, 000 to $250, 000.

The modified plan also makes $250 billion immediately available to purchase bank assets, leaving $100 billion at the president's discretion and $350 billion subject to congressional review.
Today President Bush urged the house to pass an "improved" bill.

The House could vote on the modified plan Friday.