The whole country is talking about the voting irregularities in Florida, and much of the country is upset about it in one way or another. Here on campus there were also some irregularities related to the election — not the votes, but the voter registration. The ASUO let its voter list get away. This incident may not cause the controversy that C. J. Gabbe and Peter Larson’s purchase of cookies and coffee did during last spring’s elections, but it’s a sorry state of affairs nonetheless.
Here’s a brief rundown of the ASUO’s gaffe: The ASUO compiled a list, with names and phone numbers, of all the students it registered to vote. The list is being used for a Yale study on student voting. But a member of the ASUO gave the list to someone who wanted to call students and ask them to vote for a particular candidate. An ASUO senator also took names off the list to make phone calls. Some student voters were called before the mistake was caught. Another student discovered the release of the list and asked that, out of fairness, it be given to anyone who asked.
We are concerned about this lack of discretion. OK, to be fair, anyone can pay the Lane County Elections Office to get a list of all registered voters and then whittle that list down to students. It’s public information. But students are a highly sought-after demographic, and a pre-sorted list of student voters would be valuable to many campaigns.
Students who registered to vote with the ASUO surely did not expect that, because they gave their registration card to their student government instead of mailing it themselves, their information would be given out to partisan causes. And these students shouldn’t have had to expect such shenanigans. The list should have been confidential.
Students were barraged this election season with the message that their votes counted and that voting is the most important thing they could do. Voting is what keeps our democracy running, and it is important. With all the talk of how critical voting is, and all of the good work done by the ASUO to register students and to be involved in a potentially important study of voting, why was this list not treated with the utmost discretion?
We’re not that concerned with the possibility that a few students got phone calls. Many calls were made by groups all across the country, asking voters questions and stumping for a candidate or a cause. We’re not even so
concerned that the Yale study may have been tainted by the slip, although that’s possible.
What’s really frustrating about this error in judgment is that it can make students distrustful of government. The national elections may already do that on their own: According to CNN, only 51 percent of potential voters actually cast ballots this year. The controversy about the presidency should make more people want to be involved in the process, but it might turn some away.
Likewise, not being able to trust campus government could lengthen the list of students who have given up on the process — and that’s one list we do want to let go.