December 12, 2007
Students in Iowa Defend Their Right to Caucus
As students in Iowa gear up for next month’s presidential caucuses, they are denouncing some candidates’ suggestions that students from out of state not participate. (Christopher J. Dodd and Hillary Rodham Clinton have criticized Barack Obama, the leading Democrat among young voters, for urging out-of-state students to return to their campuses in Iowa to caucus.)
“To say that students who didn’t grow up in Iowa, but who now live here, shouldn’t have the choice to participate in the caucuses is blatant voter disenfranchisement,” representatives from Drake University, Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa said in a written statement issued this week by the Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group.
“We live here in Iowa for the majority of the year and make our homes here; we are active participants in our communities — volunteering, giving back and contributing intellectual and financial resources to the state,” the students said. “We have been working hard to encourage our peers to be active participants in their democracy because college students and young people should be more involved in politics.”
The statement, signed by 22 students, urged candidates to “actively seek us out and engage us on the issues we care about.” Many students in Iowa plan to return to their campuses early to take part in the caucuses.
Sara Lipka | Posted on Wednesday December 12, 2007 | PermalinkComments
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RE: Hillary Clinton promotes student voter disenfranchisement
Students of Iowa:
Please use your influence to bring Mrs. Clinton’s attempt to abuse student voter rights to the attention of the NATIONAL media. What she’s doing in Iowa is WRONG, but then when you’re dealing with a candidate who will try to use an opponent’s kindergarten essays against them, it’s obvious that this person has no scruples. There’s nothing that she won’t stoop to.
What everyone doesn’t understand is that Hillary Clinton held a dinner meeting with Yepsen on Monday (the 10th). She got him to write that hit piece on out-of-state student voters and post it on the Des Moines Register site on the 11th. She’s doing this because Obama has much more of the student vote than she does. Period. She is stomping on the rights of students because she thinks they’re not going to vote for her.
Both Yepsen and Clinton know they are wrong but they don’t care. They fear an unprecedented student turn out will tip the scales.
Student groups should unite and hold a press conference about this ASAP.
We should also start spreading the word to our counterparts in other states so they know why Clinton (and Dodd & Biden) are trying to do in Iowa.
This should be a NON-issue. These students have the legal right to vote in Iowa, and in all other years they would have been in Iowa for the causes because the caucuses are typically held when they are in school. The only reason why out of state students would have to come back to caucus is because they moved up the caucus date this year. This should be a non issue. Please help.
This issue needs to blow up in Hillary Clinton’s face and have ripple effects throughout the country.
— Jen Dec 12, 01:29 PM #
Interesting points, Jen. I wrote a guest column in my college’s newspaper encouraging students to register and caucus, and it ran on the day before Yepsen’s anti-Obama column was in the Register. I was furious yesterday at Yepsen when I thought that he had just rendered my efforts useless. Apparently the real Iowans know better than to believe him — the comments on the online edition of the Register basically say it all. Iowa knows quite well that he deserves to be fired for this if he doesn’t take back his words and apologize for them.
So, I think we can help the nation see that if we all work together. I’m amazed that 22 students found the time to sign a petition quickly, during their finals and end-of-semester crunch time. Yes, that’s exactly what this is for us — the worst possible timing! I didn’t know about the petition and I haven’t signed it myself yet. That’s pretty encouraging news! :)
Don’t worry, we students will be much more able to mobilize before Jan. 3 than we are at the moment. Once academic deadlines and the holiday season are (mostly) past, we’ll be able to rally and respond much more effectively. We were hit on our blind side by this, but you’d best believe we’ll remember that later when the time comes to caucus. Some of us (like me) are paying attention and keeping our friends updated.
Keep believing in us, Iowa and America. We’re coming to help as soon as we can! :)
— Karen Dec 12, 03:00 PM #
Since the name “Yepsen” wasn’t mentioned in the article, could those of you who insert it into your comments, like, tell us who that person is? rather than forcing us to look it up …
— swish Dec 12, 03:07 PM #
Hey why not? If an entire state of apple cheeked, corn fed voters can have a major voice in which piece of work becomes our next President. Of course – whom ever can best convince us that Jesus Loves us (even those of us that may respect but don’t consider him our Savior) will win there.
— arthur Wegweiser Dec 12, 05:26 PM #
Yepsen is a DM Register political pundit, who like most pundits believes ardently his own opinion. This opinion is not surprising to those of us who know his other opinions. It is, on its face, inherently anti-democratic and would not have been an issue at all had the caucuses not been pushed back. So would he have argued that the resident students not be allowed to participate in the caucuses at all, regardless of when they would be held? Pehaps he should advocate a change in Iowa law that would disenfranchise all resident students from voting in any Iowa elections from those for dog catcher to mayor to governor….! If they can’t come back early to exercise their rights they have no rights at all!!
— BE! Dec 12, 09:19 PM #
Yes, David Yepsen is a columnist employed by the Des Moines Register. His column can be found online here (read the comments, too!):
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071211/OPINION01/712110372/1166/OPINION01
Also, he has a blog of his own on the DM Register’s website, so if you can’t believe he wrote what he wrote or that the Register published it, check out his Nov. 30 draft of the same ideas. If my understanding of the timeline is correct, he is the person responsible for even making this an issue at all.
There’s a video of Yepsen being touted by CNN as an expert on Iowans, too, this time paving the way to make student returners look even worse if the weather happens to be bad. The CNN video is the most outrageous thing I’ve seen so far since it raises doubt in the eyes of the nation about Iowa and its caucus processes. I wonder how many Iowans actually saw this part of the bigger picture, though….
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/12/11/iowa.weather.and.politics.cnn
Sorry I failed to clarify before, swish. Most of the other blogs I’ve seen have the direct link to the opinion column in the main post so readers can see for themselves … what he said and when he said it. This really does the students no good whatsoever, and I believe I did mention above that the coincidence in timing makes matters worse. Finals are hard enough without this sort of thing happening simultaneously.
— Karen Dec 13, 03:47 AM #
I applaud students who care about voting. For the 2004 election a number of students flew home to vote in person, if they could afford it, to OH, TN, FL, because they didn’t trust absentee ballots..Bravo Idaho students!
— Ana Jan 3, 05:49 AM #