I am disappointed in the stance GSB and IRHA have taken with regards to the upcoming city council election. Instead of focusing on voter education, their intent seems to be to slide the vote in favor of the local student candidates.

On Tuesday night a GSB representative dropped off a stack of voter registration forms and requests for absentee ballots to our resident assistant with the instruction that every student was to fill them out. Thankfully, our RA was smart enough to tell the representative he would not tell anyone to fill them out but rather let them know he had the forms in case people were interested.

Telling students they must fill out absentee ballot requests — is that voter education or just taking advantage of students?

Secondly, our RA was handed a flier advertising that the two house representatives who get the most absentee ballot requests will receive a pizza party. Does anyone else see how this undermines the responsibility of voting?

Lastly, nowhere in any message, be it from the president of the university, the president of GSB, any of the ISU Vote representatives or even the mayor of Ames, does it ever touch on the most important issue in getting students to vote — educating the student on what each candidate stands for.

Educating yourself on each candidate’s intentions and beliefs is a time-intensive process, more so than I fear many of these students registering to vote have undertaken.

In the end, do not register to vote just because of the promise of a pizza party.

Do not vote students into the City Council just because they’re students.

Vote because you truly understand what is at stake and agree with whomever you are voting.

Dan Burke

Senior

Computer Engineering