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The University Daily Kansan
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Sports: Prized recruit Aaron Miles announces that he'll play basketball at Kansas.
SEE PAGE 10A
Inside: A former KU professor of law wants his lawsuit against the University reinstated.
SEE PAGE 6A
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 111 NO. 51 For comments, contact Nathan Willis or Chris Borniger at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
And the winner is ...
Because of the Electoral College, the candidate who gets the most votes for president this year may not win
By Kursten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Tiffany Walter, Wichita senior, said she'll vote today, even though her vote didn't matter much.
She's not apathetic about civic participation, but she says the electoral college — a uniquely American phenomenon — means that her Democratic vote in a solidly Republican state won't mean much in determining the next president of the United States.
When voters go to the polls today they will see names like A Gore, George W. Bush and Ralph Nader on the ballot, but Kansans will actually be voting for a group of six electors, who they probably don't even know, and who will ultimately decide who wins the presidency.
U. S. presidential elections are decided by the electoral college instead of by direct popular vote. This means the states decide the winner, not individual citizens.
The Electoral College has often been overlooked in presidential elections, but with this year's tight race between Gore and Bush, the system is garnering more attention than usual because today's winner might not be the one who the most people vote for.
How it works
The electoral college operates on a winner-takes-all approach. Each state is allotted a certain number of electors, based on its number of U.S. representatives and senators. That means Kansas has six electors, while California has 54.
The candidate who wins the most votes in each state gets all the elector votes. So if Bush beats Gore in Kansas by just one vote, he would get all six Kansas electoral votes.
The electors will meet Dec. 18 in Washington, D.C., to make official the elected winner, who will be the candidate winning the majority of
More election coverage
For more election stories,
See page 3A
Kansas endorsements
Members of the editorial board
believe voters should choose Gore
See page 4A
Live updates tonight
Visit the Kansas online this evening
for continuous election coverage
www.Kansas.com
elector votes. If no one wins a majority, the House of Representatives select the winner.
presentatives select the winner. Why it works
Allan Cigler, professor of political science, said the writers of the Constitution established the electoral college as a safeguard against the masses electing a dominant, dictatorial leader like the King of England.
"We live in an age where I think democracy has a strong association with the idea of one person-one vote," Cigler said. "We've had instances in the past where a person became president who didn't win the popular vote, and some question whether people would accept those decisions very easily today."
Cigler said that although critics argued that the electoral college tended to focus candidates' attention on larger states like California, Florida and Texas, the system had some advantages.
"It's very important in retaining the two-party system, if one likes the two-party system." Cigler said. "The electoral college certainly makes it very difficult, even for regionally strong third party candidate to compete. The likely winner will have to have satisfied a large proportion of a diverse country."
Cigler also said a purely popular vote could result in negative side-
effects on American politics.
"It would maybe even emphasize more the importance of money and television, a lot of things people don't like," he said. "The popular vote might make the TV media image play a larger role. Basically candidates could be able to buy attention and some really able people who are not good with that media would not do very well."
With the polls going into today's election neck-and-neck, political analysts are predicting the best chance in decades that one candidate will win the election by getting the most electoral votes without actually getting the most direct popular votes.
The split-vote possibility
That's a possibility because if Gore, for example, were to win big electoral states by a small margin, but Bush won the small electoral states by larger margins, Bush could win more actual popular votes.
"There's a higher probability of that happening than anytime I can remember since 1960," Cigler said. "If it would happen, I suspect Bush to get the popular vote and Gore to win the electoral college because some of the very big states like Pennsylvania and Florida are liable to be very close."
Jeremy Walling, Springfield, Mo., graduate students and political science graduate teaching assistant, said it was hard to predict whether a split result would actually happen.
Fake calls trick students
"As a political scientist, I'd like to see a tie and see it go to the House of Representatives," he said. "That would be cool to see."
But some still say that the electoral college creates an unfair situation that counters the principles of democracy because states such as
Is it fair?
Recordings say registration card required to vote
See CANDIDATES on page 3A
By Lauren Brandenburg
writer@kansan.com
Kanson staff writer
A phone call yesterday almost convinced Elizabeth Conners that she couldn't vote today.
Conners, Omaha, Neb., freshman received a call that was a recorded message claiming to represent the Democratic Action League. The recording said she needed her voter registration card to vote.
"It made me look frantically for my card because I knew I had set it on my desk," Conners said. "I started panicking because I thought I couldn't vote."
Conners said that at least 40 other students on her residence hall floor received the same call and that the
targets were Democrats.
Julie Merz, Ballwin, Mo., senior and president of the KU Young Democrats, said the recorded message was incorrect — she said that the process was quicker if the voter had a form of identification but that none was required.
Merz, county Democratic field coordinator, said her committee had spoken with the secretary of state and was doing all it could to let voters know the message was false. It was not known, however, who was behind the calls.
"It's dirty politics at its worst, so we'll get to the bottom of it," she said.
Merz said the message qualified as voter suppression and, in a worst-case scenario, could change some election results.
Conners said the recording stressed the necessity of the voter registration card at least five times and said it was important to bring the card to comply with election laws.
"If I was someone a little more naive, I probably would have not gone out and voted." Conners said. "That's just wrong."
Jim Jesse, a Lawrence resident who is involved with the local Democratic party and has run for office before, said he thought the calls were meant to keep Democrats away from the polls. Jesse said that voters do not need the registration card or a identification to vote.
Many University of Kansas students also received e-mails from the Libertarian Party and Chris Mina, asking them to vote for him in the 3rd district congressional race, which included Dennis Moore (D-Lenexa) and Phill Kline (R-Shawnee), and the Libertarian Party.
Provost David Shulenburger said the mass e-mailing was unauthorized by the University but was unsure whether the University would take any action.
- Edited by Erin Adamson
Welcome to November
Students make their way across campus yesterday despite damp and blustery conditions. Temperatures today are not expected to exceed 40 degrees as chilly weather moves through Kansas. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Downtown parking lost 94 spaces because of a construction project in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street. Local stores fear that the year-long project will hurt business because of the loss of customer parking. Photo by Thad Allender/KANSAN
Downtown construction disrupts parking
By Matt Merkel-Hess
Kansan staff writer
Downtown construction has created a parking headache for business owners and customers on the east side of the 900 block of Massachusetts Street.
This afternoon, the City Commission will meet with the business owners to try and find a solution to the parking problems. Today's meeting is at 4 p.m. because of the election.
The problems began two weeks ago with construction of the Lawrence Arts Center and a 514-space parking garage on the 900 block of New Hampshire Street. The construction, which is expected to take a year, resulted in the loss of 94 spaces in the free, two-hour city lot and more than 100 spaces in private lots on New Hampshire Street.
To mitigate the loss of parking and alley access for service vehicles, the city converted 15 spaces on Massachusetts Street into 30-minute parking and four spots into a 15-minute loading zone. The 30-minute spaces are located in front of the First Bank tower, 900 Massachusetts St., and the loading zone spaces are in front of Saffees Inc. and Larry's Barber Shop, at 922 and 924
This afternoon, the City Commission will conduct a hearing to consider alternative locations for the loading zone, which include moving the zone in front of Pizza Hut, 934 Massachusetts St., or dividing it into two zones.
Massachusetts St.
Jason Schreiner, a manager at Milton's Coffee and Wine, 920 Massachusetts St., questioned the placement of the loading zone, which he said was usually empty.
"I'd like to see them disperse these zones throughout the block," he said. "It would be more helpful for the businesses and people trying to find a place to park."
find a place to park.
Schreiner said that while Milton's had not experienced a decline in business, it had been more difficult for customers who needed more than 30 minutes to eat lunch to find a parking space. He said the city could have done a better job of working with the existing businesses to resolve parking problems before construction started.
"There's no one glove that rats everybody down there — that's the problem," he said. "We're
Mike Wilden, city manager, said the city noti fied business of what the changes were going to be.
"There's going to be a disruption, and it won't be perfect," Schreiner said. "But they could have done a better job of working with us."
CITY COMMISSION MEETING
Receive a staff report on parking problems in the 900 block of Massachusetts Street and possible solutions.
When and where: 4 p.m. today at City Hall, 6 E.
Sixth St. The session is taking place early because of
election day. In it, the commission will:
Consider leasing office space from the Lawrence
Neighborhood Development, Fire Inspection
Sengues and a city training facility.
Receive a report on the Clinton Water Treatment plant
Services and a city training facility
- Receive a report on the Clinton Water treatment plant expansion and the Bowersock Dam repair problems.
trying to look for a solution that more people can accept."
Terri Wilson, a sales manager at Everything But Ice, 936 Massachusetts St., said she hadn't heard any complaints from customers and plenty of parking was available, especially early in the morning and after 4 p.m.
"I think for a lot of people it's real inconvenient," she said. "It's such a toss-up because regardless of what's goes on, the city will not be able to please everyone."
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Edited by Sara Nutt
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