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Raise Your Voice gets CSULB students voting

Cal State Long Beach students filled up the University Student Union for the Associated Students Inc. presidential debate party where students watched Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama face off in the second presidential debate Tuesday night.

The debate party, part of ASI’s Raise Your Voice campaign, launched on Sept. 27. Since then more than 500 CSULB students have registered to vote, with a number of students registering at the debate party.

Andrew Kress, a junior political science major and ASI secretary for system wide affairs, said the idea for the debate party started at an ASI retreat as a way to get more students involved in the political process.

“Students tend to be one of the most underrepresented and overall apathetic demographic and I want to do my part to help change that,” Kress said. “We were helped by the fact that this is a year where college students are naturally more interested in politics and elections.”

Kress saw this campaign as a good opportunity to increase student voter registration. ASI members have been putting out voter registration tables twice a day around campus and throw debate parties to attract students.

Jeannine Pearce, a senior sociology major and Obama campaign coordinator for CSULB, is also working on increasing student voter registrations with regular storefront events, debate-watching parties and tables around campus.

Pearce and Kress have made it clear that their main goal is to push students to become more active in the political community rather than rally for one party.

“Whether they are for Obama or McCain, we want to make sure they can talk about issues they believe in,” Pearce said. “If students can understand these issues and feel comfortable talking about them, then they can make it to the polls, and that’s our main goal.”

The debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., was a town hall meeting styled debate with questions from the audience and Internet. NBC’s Tom Brokaw moderated.

The economy was the first and major issue discussed in the debate.

Obama pointed to President Bush and McCain for the economic crisis, blaming them for the increased deficit and failed economic policies from the last eight years. McCain, on the other hand, proposed the government buy up and renegotiate bad home loans to stabilize the property market.

In other issues, McCain said health care was a responsibility, while Obama said it was a right. Both candidates also said they would pursue Osama Bin Laden.

Their snide remarks toward each other and their inability to follow the rules about time amused the students watching at the USU, who were not afraid to laugh along with them.

Tylor Mondloch, a junior biology student and McCain supporter, watched the debate at the USU and said at times he was distracted with the candidates taking every opportunity to jab at each other.

“For the most part they focused on the issues and they covered it well,” Mondloch said. “In the past [McCain] has taken every opportunity to talk about how he is more experienced than Obama, and I think he has toned that down significantly in this debate, which is good.”

Jessica Martinez, a senior political science major and Obama supporter, was also watching at the USU and was happy with the range of issues discussed.

“I thought it was good that issues were covered from energy to Pakistan to Afghanistan and the financial crisis,” she said. “I feel that Obama has a much better stance when it comes to supporting the people, and I feel that McCain’s experience is good when it comes to foreign policy.

ASI will be holding another event on Oct. 15 to mark the third debate between McCain and Obama. The event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the USU Southwest Terrace. Elijah Kelly, Seaweed in the film “Hairspray,” will make a guest appearance, and there will be a disk jockey, dance groups, food and speakers from the Obama and McCain camps.

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