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.听听

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.

I鈥檝e always been interested in politics, and I like to be involved in my community. I鈥檓 a school board member in my hometown and I make the 3 陆-hour trip once a month for meetings. Here, I鈥檝e been with the 乐播传媒 Democrats and the 乐播传媒 College Student Government all four years.

Last year I was elected Student Government president. Our most challenging issue is disbursing $300,000 among the more than 100 student clubs. Our decision has a direct impact on the community. That鈥檚 one of the most interesting things about 乐播传媒: we have a voice in important matters affecting students鈥� lives and the college鈥檚 future.

I鈥檓 a politics major. Two summers ago I apprenticed with Professor John Baughman, conducting research for his book on the development of Congress. Last summer I interned in Washington, D.C. for Maine Congressman Mike Michaud. They had me doing a lot of writing. The only other intern who did that much writing was another 乐播传媒 student, Michael Petrick 鈥�09. That鈥檚 when it hit me how 乐播传媒, by challenging us to write at a high level, prepares us for the real world.

Read more about career services at 乐播传媒:

www.bates.edu/career.xml

Les Campbell, a leading expert on the development of democracy, visits 乐播传媒 College to speak about the necessity and difficulty of building democracies in the Middle East at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Democrats, the event is open to the public at no charge.

Campbell’s speech will touch on high-profile democracy-building efforts, including the controversial democratization process in Iraq.

Campbell is a senior associate and regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Washington D.C.-based , where he has directed the Institute’s democratic development programs in those regions since 1996.

Campbell has overseen the expansion of NDI’s programs in the Middle East with the establishment of 10 permanent offices that furnish assistance with political, civic and governance reform and development throughout the Arab world. In addition, he has organized election-observation missions around the region, and provided training in the skills necessary for political candidates, government officials and voters to participate in democratic life.

A frequent guest and commentator on Middle East issues for major broadcast news outlets, including CNN, ABC, PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Fox News and several international organizations, Campbell is quoted regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and many other publications.

Campbell has also been a guest speaker and/or lecturer at American University, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown University, the University of Toronto, and several chapters of the World Affairs Council. He has been a member of task forces and study groups at the Council on Foreign Relations; the School of Advanced International Studies; the United States Institute of Peace; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among others.

Campbell is a fellow at the Queen’s University Center for the Study of Democracy and sits on the board of directors of the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Before joining NDI in 1994, he was chief of staff to the leader of the New Democratic Party in the Canadian House of Commons.

Campbell earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University and a B.A. with honors from the University of Manitoba.

Adam Cote of Sanford, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the Maine Army National Guard, visits 乐播传媒 College to offer a firsthand account of his time in Iraq at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall.

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

Now an attorney at the Portland law firm of Pierce Atwood LLP and considered a rising star in Maine Democratic politics, Cote served with the National Guard in Mosul. At 乐播传媒, he will discuss his experiences in Iraq and administration听conduct of the war,听and will urge listeners to support Democratic candidates in the upcoming听elections.

“According to a recent survey from George Washington University, 86 percent of young voters said that a candidate’s position on Iraq will be on their minds when they vote,” says 乐播传媒 Democrats President Jason Buxbaum, a junior from Hillsdale, N.J. “Adam Cote will remind us that the differences between Gov. John Baldacci and his Republican opponent on this issue couldn’t be clearer.”

As 乐播传媒 College gets its five-week spring Short Term into gear, the 乐播传媒 Democrats sponsor three events examining the war in Iraq and American military policy. The events are open to the public at no charge.

Titled “A Short Term of Thought on U.S. Foreign Policy,” the series opens with filmmaker Walter Miale at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 3, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. Miale will introduce, screen and discuss short films from his recent documentary compilation, Deadly Mistakes?, which offers historical background on the Iraq war and the U.S. war on terror.

Miale will also screen a preview of his new work in progress, Why Do They Hate Us?, a film about what must be done to avert the next terrorist attack on the United States.

The event is cosponsored by the sociology department, the college Office of Student Activities and the 乐播传媒 Student Government.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 9, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., filmmaker Eugene Jarecki presents his documentary Why We Fight, followed by a lecture and question-and-answer period. The film, which Variety magazine called “a thoroughgoing and affecting film on the nature and causes of the American military-industrial complex,” won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

The event is cosponsored by the departments of history, sociology and political science, and the Office of Student Activities.

On Tuesday, May 16, the 乐播传媒 Democrats host a roundtable discussion of the Iraq war, with panelists including 乐播传媒 students and professors. The specific panelists, time and location have yet to be determined.

For more information about these events, please call 201-739-4489.

David Horowitz and Al Franken, authors and political commentators who represent distinctly opposed social and political viewpoints, are scheduled to speak within days of each other at 乐播传媒 College.

The Maine College Republicans present the conservative Horowitz, author of the Academic Bill of Rights that the 乐播传媒 College Student Government adopted last spring, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. The event is open to the public at no charge.

In conjunction with the Maine College Democrats, the 乐播传媒 Democrats present Franken, a comedian, Air America Radio host and author, at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, in the 乐播传媒 College Chapel, College Street. Limited seating for the talk remains available at $10 per person, 乐播传媒 Democrats President Will McElhinny said on Sept. 26. Overflow seating presenting Franken’s talk over closed-circuit television will be offered at no cost outdoors near the chapel, weather permitting.

Prior to Franken’s talk, he will be the guest of honor at a reception in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. Those attending the reception will receive seats for the chapel event. Admission for the reception is $30, according to McElhinny.

For more information, call McElhinny at 207-240-6147.

Horowitz is editor-in-chief of founder and president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and an outspoken observer of politics and culture. A prolific author, his books include The End Of Time (Encounter Books, 2005), Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Regnery Publishing, 2004) and Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey (Free Press, 1997), in which Horowitz describes his personal journey away from radical left-wing politics.

Horowitz has spoken at more than 60 colleges and universities (including 乐播传媒 in 1999) and appeared on myriad leading news and commentary broadcasts. His Academic Bill of Rights has opened a national debate about the political climate prevailing in college classrooms, with advocates of the bill calling it a needed defense of intellectual diversity and opponents claiming that it would actually curtail open inquiry and free speech.

Franken first earned national attention as one of the original writers and a performer on television’s “Saturday Night Live” in the 1970s. He is perhaps best-known as a liberal political commentator and satirist in live performances, on television and in such books as the best seller Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton Adult, 2003), Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot (Delacorte Press, 1996) and The Truth (with jokes), scheduled for a late October release (Dutton Adult).

Franken has hosted Air America’s flagship program, the three-hour “Al Franken Show,” since the liberal broadcast service was launched in 2004. A resident of New York City, Franken frequently visits Maine because of family connections — his wife, Frannie, is from Portland.

In next Tuesday’s presidential election, Americans have a choice between “fear and hope,” former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell told an audience of about 100 at 乐播传媒 College at midday Thursday, Oct. 28. Speaking in support of Sen. John Kerry and presented by the 乐播传媒 Democrats, the Maine Democrat was the one of the听latest in a series of notable figures campaigning here on behalf of the presidential candidates.

Vanessa Kerry, the candidate’s 27-year-old daughter who is

studying health policy and economics in London, followed Mitchell by a day听when she addressed a crowd of about 150 at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, in Chase Hall Lounge. Kerry urged students to go to the polls on Nov. 2 and vote.

While his brief talk emphasized familiar themes from the Kerry playbook, the venue, the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, had special significance for Mitchell, a former Muskie prot茅g茅 and successor to his Senate seat. A member of the 乐播传媒 class of 1936, Muskie was the prime mover behind landmark U.S. environmental laws including the Clean Air Act 鈥� a measure revised under Mitchell’s Senate leadership and enacted in 1990 with support from President George H.W. Bush. It’s “one of the great ironies of recent history,” Mitchell said, that the son of the first President Bush now seeks to roll back national environmental protections.

In his conclusion, Mitchell linked Kerry with bedrock American ideals and said that the Massachusetts senator represented hope and a new direction for Americans.

The audience included 19 fifth-graders from Lewiston’s St. Joseph’s School. “We’re not supporting Kerry or Bush,” explained their teacher, Pandora Lawler. “We’re just here to learn.”

“It’s often said that democracies are measured by the participation of their citizens,” President Elaine Tuttle Hansen observed. “We are fortunate at 乐播传媒 to have student Democrats and Republicans who each year take that civic commitment to heart and work to register their fellow students.”

Hansen listed several ways 乐播传媒 is getting out the vote as we approach Election Day Nov. 2:

* As in past years, both groups set up tables on Orientation Day to register new students to vote. Since then, the effort has continued one-to-one.

* Discussions on the debates have been moderated by Assistant Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelley Romano and Professor of Political Science James Richter. Richter is also moderating a series of student discussions about election issues each Wednesday, 6-7 p.m. in the Rowe Room of Commons.听 Occasional guests have included Judy Meyer, editorial page editor of the Lewiston Sun Journal.

* TV debate-watching nights are being organized around their respective big screens by the Republicans, Democrats, and those who prefer a non-partisan venue.

*A panel discussion was held on Oct. 6 to discuss the Palesky Tax Cap referendum in Maine, and what it would mean to Lewiston.听 Panelists were:听 John L. Painter, Candidate for District 74; Dale Douglas, Maine School Management Association; Nathan Harrington, 乐播传媒 ’05; Weston Bonney, Maine State School Board; Tom Hood, Longley Elementary School Principal; Robert Walker, President of Maine Education Association and chair of Maine Education Leadership Consortium.

*听 Election issues will again be the topic of a speech by Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution on “The 2004 Election: What’s at Stake?” at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 in Chase Hall Lounge.听 There will be a voter registration drive outside of Chase Lounge beginning at 6:30pm.

听

Sen. Edward Kennedy, along with the daughter of Sen. John Kerry, will speak at the 乐播传媒 College Chapel, College Street, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, in support of Sen. Kerry’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Kennedy-Kerry visit is the second of two events this week sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Democrats to raise interest in the statewide Democratic caucuses on Sunday, Feb. 8.

The first event campaign is a “Candidates Forum” at 乐播传媒 College at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, in Chase Hall, Campus Avenue. Representatives from the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, Sen. John Edwards, Kerry and Rep. Dennis Kucinich will address the gathering and answer questions. Names of the campaign representatives were not available as this was written.

“The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of the caucuses and to help undecided Democrats choose a candidate that best fits them,” says senior Paul Brunetti, president of the 乐播传媒 Democrats. “The event is open to the college community, as well as the public.”

Kennedy, Massachusetts’ senior senator, will be accompanied at 乐播传媒 by Vanessa Kerry, who is taking time off from her studies at Harvard Medical School to stump for her father. She will speak prior to Kennedy in the chapel event, which is also open to the public at no cost.