I was offended by Nick Barbash's comment in Thursday's column that the College Democrats were \invisible"" during this campaign season. In my three years as a member of this organization, I have never seen such a high level of involvement from our members. The work we did, while we did not always tack our name to it, played a substantial role in the outcome of this election on campus.
We had the deputy city clerk come to one of our meetings and deputize all our members to register voters. Between September and mid-October our members were handing in a steady stream of voter registration forms. We had dorm and apartment captains identifying Democratic voters, making sure they were registered at their current addresses, giving them information about voting absentee and contacting them to vote early.
Our organization provided an energetic volunteer force to the coordinated Democratic campaigns (Kerry, Feingold and Baldwin), helping them implement the absentee ballot program and the program to vote early on campus. We provided the volunteers to facilitate the van rides to the City-County Building every day for the last three weeks of the election. This enabled hundreds of students to vote early.
We lit-dropped in every student ward surrounding campus with information about voter rights in the state of Wisconsin. We provided mailbox stuffers for all the dorms informing students where they could vote (and not incorrectly, as the College Republicans did) and why voting Democratic was the smart choice for students. We placed a complaint when the College Republicans misinformed student voters, prompting the chancellor to send an e-mail to all students with information about where to vote.
We monitored the polls on Election Day, looking out for any foul play. We provided students with last-minute information about what they needed to bring to the polls for same-day registration and which polling place they needed to go to.
Barbash referred to student voting. As I've said before, we implemented a successful absentee ballot program and facilitated the early vote program, which enabled hundreds of students to avoid lines and harassment on Election Day. We gave students rides to the polls on Election Day (even if their polling place was two blocks away). We provided the students with free copies of the student newspapers and The Onion to read while they were waiting in line.
As far as Election Day get-out-the-vote efforts are concerned, I'm not sure how you missed us. Any pro-Kerry campaigning that day had to be our organization. Can you honestly tell me you didn't even see a single John Kerry sign Nov. 2? We had 200 volunteers working on campus on Election Day. Some of them started at 6 a.m. and didn't stop working until 9 p.m. Many of our volunteers didn't wear Kerry stickers to be identified with our organization because they would be passing too close to polling places, where any campaign paraphernalia is strictly prohibited. Our volunteers were doing visibility events in high-traffic areas, knocking on doors and dragging people to the polls, directing students to polling places, staffing our representative when she came to meet and greet students on State Street, monitoring poll lines and tallying results on a regular basis to assess voter turn-out (so that we could redirect get-out-the-vote efforts to areas that needed more attention).
Nick, I understand that other groups were working just as hard, and I can't tell you how much we appreciated the indirect help we got from them. By no means am I going to discredit their efforts. But please, just because the College Democrats didn't slap their name to everything they did, just because they didn't always ask to be recognized for their efforts, don't discredit the incredible amount of time and energy our members put into this campaign.
We did so much for students on this campus this fall. We brought in speakers to talk about specific issues that students wanted to hear about in this election, like the environment, education, women and civil rights. We staffed the Kerry rallies (some of us not even getting a glimpse of our candidate) so that other students could hear him speak. We phone-banked our supporters every night, reminding them to vote and to vote early if possible. We spoke at info sessions and debates across campus, which were set up for the express purpose of discussing the issues in terms that students understand-the very kind of speech you are seeking with your column.
In an election year, College Democrats are absorbed by the campaign. Maybe that's why you didn't see our name-because we had an election to win, not a reputation to keep up. But I ask you to reconsider the allegations you raised against our organization. This campus could not have been won so successfully without the College Democrats.
