What's one vote?
A long time ago, in a place not very far away, I was student at the great Louisiana State University. The last thing which held any
interest for me was the Student Government Association. I grew up on campus, so I had observed the SGA from about age 12, on. It was basically a social event for the fraternities and sororities. The student body was very fragmented and fairly apathetic, so it didn't take a very large voter bloc to swing an election. One year, a guy named Ted Schirmer managed to put together a bloc of anybody who was not in a fraternity. It worked and he was elected. Needless to say, Ted did not get invited to any Frathouse parties.
He did get recalled. The Greeks weren't happy with him, so they started a recall drive and were able to force a recall election. SGA elections were clumsy affairs. There was only one polling place, because there was no other way to prevent people from voting twice. If your daily business did not take you past the front of the Student Union, you weren't likely to vote.
On the day of the recall, I made it a point to vote to keep Ted. I had no particular reason, but it felt right. I had a half hour before my next class and was standing around talking to a few people when the recall was brought up. Most of them had heard nothing about it. I told one guy, "If you want to vote, I'll walk over there with you." That was a fair offer and he accepted. It only took a few minutes, and when we got back, I repeated to someone else. He also voted to keep Ted.
When it was all said and done and counted, Ted survived the recall by two votes.
A long time ago, in a place not very far away, I was student at the great Louisiana State University. The last thing which held any
interest for me was the Student Government Association. I grew up on campus, so I had observed the SGA from about age 12, on. It was basically a social event for the fraternities and sororities. The student body was very fragmented and fairly apathetic, so it didn't take a very large voter bloc to swing an election. One year, a guy named Ted Schirmer managed to put together a bloc of anybody who was not in a fraternity. It worked and he was elected. Needless to say, Ted did not get invited to any Frathouse parties.
He did get recalled. The Greeks weren't happy with him, so they started a recall drive and were able to force a recall election. SGA elections were clumsy affairs. There was only one polling place, because there was no other way to prevent people from voting twice. If your daily business did not take you past the front of the Student Union, you weren't likely to vote.
On the day of the recall, I made it a point to vote to keep Ted. I had no particular reason, but it felt right. I had a half hour before my next class and was standing around talking to a few people when the recall was brought up. Most of them had heard nothing about it. I told one guy, "If you want to vote, I'll walk over there with you." That was a fair offer and he accepted. It only took a few minutes, and when we got back, I repeated to someone else. He also voted to keep Ted.
When it was all said and done and counted, Ted survived the recall by two votes.
