If you used the main entrance to Commons on Tuesday, you couldn鈥檛 have missed the posters on the doors, spelling V-O-T-E.

Or the table, staffed by students, full of candy, 鈥淚 Voted鈥� buttons, and Maine voter guides.

Or the easel pad that tallied each passing 乐播传媒 student who had voted, in person or absentee, in the 2018 midterm elections 鈥� 127, as of 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

And if for some reason you did miss it, Maya Seshan 鈥�20 of Wilton, Conn., president of the 乐播传媒 College Democrats, made sure you got the message.

鈥淒id you vote?鈥� Seshan called into the flood of students arriving for lunch. 鈥淒o you have plans to vote?鈥�

A passer-by replied that they had, in fact, just voted. 鈥淵es!鈥� Seshan said. 鈥淗it that tally!鈥� Then there were 128.

In Commons on Election Day, Maya Seshan 鈥�20 of Wilton, Conn., shares the message of the day: “Did you vote?” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

乐播传媒 students can choose to vote either in Maine or in their home states, in person or absentee. Many elect the local option, heading to the Lewiston Armory, a short walk down Central Avenue from Commons.

Plenty of people around campus worked to get out the vote, and to make voting easy. Students walked together to the Armory from the Office of Intercultural Education. Professors reminded their students repeatedly to vote; some arranged their own walkovers.

The College Democrats, the College Republicans, and the Harward Center, among other groups, walked students to the Armory every half-hour from the opening of the polls to their closing.

President Clayton Spencer joins a group of 乐播传媒 students in the short walk to the polls on Election Day. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Seshan said groups like Planned Parenthood Generation Action, 乐播传媒 Student Action, and various environmental groups have joined in the effort to register students to vote and ensure they voted.

鈥淲e want to make sure there鈥檚 no way a student goes through their day at 乐播传媒 today not knowing that it鈥檚 Election Day and not understanding their civic responsibility,鈥� Seshan said.聽聽

One way to do that was by calling to her classmates, again and again, 鈥淒id you vote?鈥�

鈥淚 submitted my absentee ballot,鈥� one replied.

鈥淚 voted,鈥� someone else told the table as she picked up a button. 鈥淚 just wanted the pin.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檒l vote after work,鈥� someone else promised.

A child approached the table, eyeing the candy. 鈥淚 voted,鈥� he insisted. 鈥淚鈥檓 21.鈥�

Tally marks on an easel pad keep track of 乐播传媒 voters on Election Day. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Arianna Fano 鈥�19 of Lincolnshire, Ill., and Daniel Fichmann 鈥�19 of New York City added their tallies. Fano chronicled the ways she鈥檇 been reminded to vote 鈥� professors reminding her in all her classes, endless posts on social media.

鈥淭here鈥檚 an element of social pressure,鈥� Fano said, 鈥渂ut in a good way.鈥�

And plenty of students took the student organizers up on their offer to escort them to the polls. Liza Folsom 鈥�21 of San Mateo, Calif., joined a small noontime group. Folsom had been excited to find out she could register to vote in Maine. She considered herself voting for people who could not.

鈥淚t feels like I鈥檓 making a difference,鈥� she said.

If just one ballot wasn鈥檛 enough, students could vote in a mock election, conducted by students in Associate Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelley-Romano鈥檚 鈥淧residential Campaign Rhetoric鈥� course. The polling place was also in Commons.

On Election Day, Topher Castaneda ’19 of Los Angeles (left) poses with Dylan Metsch-Ampel ’19 of Montclair, N.J., on Alumni Walk. Castaneda was encouraging students to vote, while Metsch-Ampel wore a suit in his role of a campaign manager for a mock presidential election on campus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Max Gardner 鈥�19, the Democratic 鈥渃andidate鈥� for president, solicited last-minute votes outside Commons with his trusty campaign dog, Tilley (who actually belongs to Molly Newton 鈥�11, assistant dean of students for residence life and health education ).

By 2:30 p.m., when the rain that had threatened all day was making good on its promise, the tally marks topped 300 鈥� 鈥渙ne in six,鈥� observed Aimee Oakes 鈥�20 of Asheville, N.C., who volunteered to walk students over from Commons. By the next day, the tallies ran onto another sheet of paper.

Seshan left for a class but said she鈥檇 take the rowing team to the polls later that evening 鈥� a coxswain, she wanted to create a culture of voting among her younger teammates.

By then, Commons traffic had slowed to a trickle, and the answer to the day鈥檚 big question 鈥� 鈥淒id you vote?鈥� 鈥� was, more and more, 鈥淵ep, already voted!鈥�

Rick Santorum, a Republican who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House and Senate, addresses the topic of Islamic extremism at 乐播传媒 at 7 p.m. Monday, March 14, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation, the talk is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact mcocciar@bates.edu.

Terry McAuliffe, who served as chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, offers the keynote speech at the Maine College Democrats Convention at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 18, also in the Muskie Archives. This talk, too, is open to the public at no cost.

The convention resumes with workshops and panel discussions at 8:30 a.m. the following day in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). For more information, please contact dkempner@bates.edu.

Santorum, who served in the U.S. House from 1990 to 1995 and the Senate from 1995 through 2007, was known as one of his party’s most effective members in Congress. He was one of the House “Gang of Seven” that exposed the House banking and House post office scandals. He was also the author of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.

Santorum wrote the 2005 New York Times best-seller It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (Intercollegiate Studies Institute). He is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Friday host of Bill Bennett’s national radio program “Morning in America” and a columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

McAuliffe is a longtime leader of and political adviser to the Democratic Party. As chair of the DNC, he raised $578 million, bringing the party out of debt for the first time in its history. In that role, he is also credited with creating a computer database of more than 170 million potential voters, and launching initiatives to educate and mobilize women voters, to mobilize younger voters and to protect voting rights.

He served as co-chair of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. McAuliffe unsuccessfully ran for the 2009 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nomination. A longtime Virginia businessman, he is a founder and the chairman of GreenTech Automotive, which manufactures electric and hybrid vehicles.

Buchanan will address immigration issues in the United States. Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans, this event is open to the public at no cost.

Buchanan began her political career as the national treasurer of former President Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. In 1981, Reagan appointed her as treasurer of the United States. At age 32, she was the youngest person to hold that position since its establishment in 1775.

From 1996 into 1999, Buchanan co-anchored “Equal Time,” a political talk show on CNBC and later MSNBC.

Buchanan is now president of The American Cause, an educational foundation dedicated to advancing conservative issues, and is co-chair of a political action committee that opposes amnesty for illegal aliens.

Buchanan has a master’s degree in mathematics from McGill University. In 1981, she received an honorary doctor of 聽law degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Jeffrey Miron, senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in Harvard University’s economics department, presents a lecture titled “Bankruptcy or Bailout: A Libertarian Perspective on the Financial Crisis” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, in Chase Hall Lounge at 乐播传媒 College, 56 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 economics department and the 乐播传媒 Republicans and Libertarians, the event is open to the public at no cost.

Miron is a prominent libertarian economist. He has published nearly 40 books and articles on business cycle theory and government regulation of personal behavior such as alcohol and drug use, and gun ownership.

Miron has argued that the recent bailout of financial institutions was misguided, and that the economy would have been better served had the institutions instead been allowed to fail. He has written for CNN on the topic and was one of 166 academic economists who signed a letter to congressional leaders in September 2008 opposing the government bailout plan.

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly gives a talk titled Feminism vs. Conservatism: The Great Debate at 乐播传媒 College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans, the event is open to the public at no cost.

“Mrs. Schlafly’s talk will focus on the failures of feminism and the importance of the traditional family unit,” said Jonathan Browher, first vice president of the 乐播传媒 College Republicans and a junior from Meredith, N.H. “She’ll challenge the perpetuated myth that the promotion of women’s rights is incompatible with the conservative movement.”

“With Schlafly’s expertise on women’s issues, the 乐播传媒 community will have the opportunity to hear some novel ideas and insights about the state of the feminist movement today.”

Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo (Pere Marquette Press, 1964). She has been a prominent foe of abortion since 1972, when she started the national volunteer organization now called . In a 10-year battle, Schlafly led the successful national opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

An articulate opponent of what she terms the radical feminist movement, Schlafly appears in debate on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.

Schlafly’s monthly newsletter, The Phyllis Schlafly Report, is now in its 38th year. Her syndicated column appears in 100 newspapers, her radio commentaries are heard daily on 460 stations and her radio talk show on education called Phyllis Schlafly Live is heard weekly on 45 stations.

Schlafly is the author or editor of 20 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism, nuclear strategy, education, child care and phonics. Her most recent book, Feminist Fantasies (Spence Publishing, 2003), is a collection of essays on feminism in the media, workplace, home and the military.

Schlafly is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received a doctorate in law from Washington University Law School and received her master’s in political science from Harvard University.

Libertarian, entertainer and entrepreneur, Reginald Jones offers a talk titled Betrayal: Sold Out by the Civil Rights Movement at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, in Room 204, Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans, the event is open to the public at no cost.

“Mr. Jones’ talk will focus on the struggle for civil rights and how the African-American community has been mistreated by public officials over the years,” said Michael O’Gorman, a 乐播传媒 first-year student and second vice president of the 乐播传媒 Republicans.

is a singer and hip-hop entrepreneur. As a young man in the South Bronx, Jones worked with rap artist Grand Master Flash, one of the pioneers of the hip hop movement. Jones parlayed that experience into a job at MCA/Universal Records, and in 1990 formed his own entertainment company, The Reggitainment Group, which managed music acts.

In 1994, Jones made the leap to public speaking and politics when he joined , an African-American leadership group. In 1995, he got his first talk-radio job on WTTM in Trenton, New Jersey. Since then, he has hosted the Grassroots Liv” show on National Empowerment Television, spoken on dozens of college campuses and manned the microphone on the Radio America Network’s Generation Now.

Jones occasionally performs as a backup singer for George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, and volunteers for Afri-Male, a New Jersey mentoring group for young black males. Throughout all his endeavors, Jones has offered a simple message of empowerment for the black community: “Capitalism.”

“That’s the word that I want to hear from now on,” he says. “Talk to me about free enterprise. Racism did not destroy our neighborhoods. Government did it.”

The Maine College Republicans will host the Youth Leadership School, the flagship program of the Leadership Institute, at 乐播传媒 College from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 17-18. The school will be held in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, at 70 Campus Ave.

The program is sponsored by the Maine College Republicans and the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based organization that trains aspiring conservative leaders. The Youth Leadership School is open to high school and college students for a $30 registration fee, which includes three meals a day, course materials and optional local hotel accommodations.

To register or for more information, please contact this chairman@mainecr.org.

This is the fourth consecutive year the have hosted the Youth Leadership School at 乐播传媒. The school is expected to draw college Republicans from as far north as Aroostook County and as far south as York County.

Founded in 1979 by conservative activist Morton Blackwell, the Leadership Institute uses quick-paced multimedia presentations and experienced instructors to share with students the organizational and campaign techniques necessary for effective leadership.

“It鈥檚 a great opportunity to host the Leadership Institute in Maine,” stated Nathaniel Walton, a junior at 乐播传媒 and state chair of the Maine College Republicans. “The school will provide all of the knowledge and skills Maine College Republicans will need in order to become more effective grassroots activists.”

“Furthermore, the strategy and skills that Maine College Republicans learn this weekend will motivate them to promote the positive Republican message in every corner of the Pine Tree State in the coming weeks and months,” Walton concluded.

Notable graduates of the include deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove, former Virginia Gov. and Republican National Committee Chairman James Gilmore, U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Two 乐播传媒 students are among 30 students nationwide recognized for their activism by Young America’s Foundation, a conservative outreach organization.

Nate Walton ’08 of Marblehead, Mass., and Melissa Simones ’06 of Greene were honored in April as members of the foundation’s Club 100. A campus activist rewards program, Club 100 gives points to members based on outreach activities such as bringing speakers to campus and raising money for their programs.

Students earning 100 points or more are invited to an annual retreat at Rancho Del Cielo, the ranch of the late President Ronald Reagan. Walton, who chairs the Maine College Republicans, ranked fifth in the nation, with 150 points. Simones, with 120 points, ranked 15th. The point score winner was Elizabeth Koren of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, with 250.

Last month, Walton received the Richard M. and Helen DeVos Freedom Center Award for Student Leadership by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

“It was a moving experience to be at Rancho Del Cielo,” said Simones. “I not only heard about President Reagan’s accomplishments but also gained a better sense of his truly great character. Despite being the most powerful man in the world, President Reagan took great pleasure in simple pastimes such as building fences and riding horses.”

Simones served as secretary of the Maine College Republicans in 2005 and 2006 and has been involved with that organization and the 乐播传媒 College Republicans since her first year at the college.

Virginia Republican Party Chairwoman Kate Obenshain Griffin gives a lecture on the topic Failure of Feminism at 乐播传媒 College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact Nate Walton, chairman of the Maine College Republicans, at 207-240-4549 or this chairman@mainecr.org.

“Griffin’s lecture will focus on her tireless activism on behalf of conservative causes and women, and why the modern Republican Party best represents American women,” stated Emily Taylor, a first-year student at 乐播传媒 and women’s outreach director of the 乐播传媒 College Republicans.

“I am honored to welcome Kate Griffin to 乐播传媒 to represent a voice rarely heard on campus during Women鈥檚 History Month,” said Walton, a 乐播传媒 sophomore.

Named by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as one of the rising stars in the Republican Party, Griffin garnered national attention when she orchestrated an impressive grassroots movement to fight Democratic Gov. Mark Warner’s efforts to raise taxes in Virginia in 2003.

Griffin attracted national attention again at the 2004 Republican National Convention as a frequent guest on news and radio shows, including Fox News, C-SPAN and National Public Radio. As an elected member of the Republican National Platform Committee, Griffin championed conservative values on issues relating to life, marriage, national security and economic policy.

Griffin served as education and health policy advisor for then-governor, now U.S. Senator, George Allen. Griffin has served as both director of program development and director of lectures for Young America’s Foundation, an educational foundation committed to promoting political balance on college campuses, where she developed the largest conservative lecture program in the nation. Griffin now serves as a member of the foundation’s board of directors.

Griffin recently founded and co-chairs a political leadership training program in Virginia for women. She is the co-founder of James 1:27 Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to widows and orphans in times of crisis.

A Virginia native, Griffin is a graduate of the University of Virginia and lives in Winchester with her husband and their four children.

Pepperdine Law School dean and former U.S. independent counsel Kenneth Starr visits 乐播传媒 College to speak on the topic Meaning of Marriage: Constitution and Judiciary at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Open to the public at no charge, the event is sponsored by the 乐播传媒 College Republicans, the college聽Lectures Committee,聽the political science department, the offices of the president, dean of the faculty and dean of students, and Young America’s Foundation. For more information, please call 207-240-4549.

Starr is a partner with the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, P.C., specializing in appellate work. He also teaches issues in constitutional law as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law and as a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University School of Law.

In 1994, Starr replaced Robert Fiske as prosecutor investigating the Whitewater real estate scandal involving, among others, then-President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Whitewater investigation yielded little result, but in 1998 Starr’s office broadened the inquiry to include the president’s role in what became the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Starr’s investigation led to Clinton’s impeachment and acquittal.

Starr served as solicitor general of the United States from 1989 to January 1993.聽He argued 25 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and represented the U.S. government on legal issues involving regulatory and constitutional statutes.聽He also served as U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989, as counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith from 1981 to 1983, and as law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger from 1975 to 1977 and 5th Circuit Judge David W. Dyer from 1973 to 1974.

Starr is the author of “First Among Equals” (Warner Books, 2002), a conservative examination of the late 20th-century Supreme Court.

Starr was raised in San Antonio, Texas. He received his B.A. from George Washington University in 1968, his M.A. from Brown in 1969 and his J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law in 1973. He has received numerous honors and awards including the Jefferson Cup award from the FBI, the Edmund Randolph Award for Outstanding Service in the Department of Justice, and the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. He lives with his family in McLean, Va.

“I am honored to welcome Judge Starr to 乐播传媒,” stated Nathaniel Walton of Marblehead, Mass., a 乐播传媒 sophomore and chairman of the Maine College Republicans.