Page 8
THE BATTALION
TUESDAV, NOVEMBER 7, 1978
Perricone's
Townshire Gulf
CERTIFIED MECHANIC
ON DUTY
BRAKES
TUNE-UPS
TIRES
AIR CONDITIONING
‘SPECIAL
FREE
LUBRICATION
WITH
ALIGNMENT
*13
88
(OFFER EXPIRES 11/10/78)
mmi 111. i_ HOURS
fG u I#) 2213 TEXAS 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
822-6485 mon.-sat.
Americans losing interest
Voters going to polls less
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Despite Pro
position 13 fever and the chance to
elect 36 governors and 35 senators,
Americans are likely to continue a
long- running trend and stay home
from the polls in droves today.
If the level of voting in the na
tion’s 43 primaries this year is any
indication, the turnout this year
could be a record low, says Curtis
Cans, an expert in voter behavior.
“Since the trend toward de
creased participation has been con
tinuous since the early 1960s, and
since the turnout for this year’s
primaries showed that the tendency
to eschew the polls has not stopped,
there is a distinct possibility that
less than a third of those eligible will
MARriMRUTE
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Political Ad paid for by Aggies for Mark White, Jeff Steen, Chairman. P.O.
9372 CS, TX.
XX=
vote for Congress this year,” he
says.
A former Democratic party ac
tivist and now head of the Commit
tee for the Study of the American
Electorate, Cans wants to know why
people are consciously refusing to
vote and how to get them back to
the polls.
He has some thoughts on the mat
ter — and more important, a collec
tion of some startling statistics on
the size of America’s vast election
day yawn.
—Of all the world’s democracies,
only Botswana has a lower national
election turnout, about 35 percent.
—In 35 states that had primaries
in both parties this year, 22 had
lower turnout rates this year than in
1974 or their most recent nonpresi-
dential year, while only 10, plus the
District of Columbia, showed in
creases. Two others held primaries
too long ago to make good compari
sons.
—Twenty-six of those states had
turnouts below 30 percent, 13 were
below 20 percent and Kentucky had
a primary turnout below 10 percent.
Only California and Hawaii had 40
percent-plus turnouts.
—From a high of 63.8 percent
participation in 1960, presidential
voting has dropped to 54.4 percent
in 1976, the lowest since 51.1 per-
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103 COLLEGE
cent in 1948, when nonvoting blacks
were counted as eligible, and 51.9
percent in 1928. That means Jimmy
Carter was elected by less than 28
percent of his countrymen.
—From a high of 46.3 percent in
1962, off-year elections drew 36.1
percent in 1974, the lowest since
the war year of 1942 when 32.5 per
cent voted.
—New Jersey Gov. Brendan
Byrne was re-elected in 1977 with
less than 15 percent of eligible vot
ers supporting him, and Mayor Ed
ward Koch of New York won less
than 12 percent of the eligible vote.
—This year, conservative Repub
lican Jeffrey Bell in New Jersey
ousted Sen. Clifford Case in a pri
mary that drew only 11.4 percent of
eligible voters to the polls; Iowa
conservative Roger Jepsen beat
moderate Maurice Van Nostrand in
a GOP senatorial primary that drew
12.8 percent participation.
Cans says lower turnouts gener
ally help candidates at the political
extremes. This year it’s conserva
tives, in 1972 it was liberals. For
example, Sen. Edward Brooke,
R-Mass., won his primary battle
against a conservative activist be
cause of an unpredicted high turn
out.
“If the decline in participation
continues, there is every reason to
believe that more and more elec
tions will be won by small groups of
intense activists and that the public
interest as a whole will begin to suf
fer,’’ he says.
“When the level of participation
is so low that single-issue zealots
such as those opposed to abortion
and gun control can be instrumental
in defeating a candidate such as
Rep. Donald Fraser in Minnesota or
extremists can unseat men like Clif
ford Case of New Jersey, there is
something fundamentally wrong in
our political system.”
Nonvoters can be lumped into
three categories. Cans says: chronic
nonvoters, who are poor, unedu
cated and “living an atavistic exis
tence;’’ the young, who are not con
forming to the pattern of increasing
their voting as they age; and the
dropouts, the estimated 15 million
Americans who simply quit voting.
Thirty-eight percent of them are
people with high levels of education
and income.
Why?
“I think that there is a whole se
ries of things,” Cans says, “the last
of which is because in many cases it
hasn’t made any difference whether
they voted or not in terms of the
direction of public policy.
“You start off with a sort of mas
sive promissory rhetoric of the early
‘60s and the emergence of the fact it
couldn’t all be delivered upon.”
There was Vietnam and Watergate,
he says, Lyndon Johnson and
Richard Nixon. “And they were
both dampeners on the image of
public leadership.”
Also, while the vast body of civil
rights, anti-war and environmental
activists eventually had an effect on
government policy, it was too slow
in coming. “For those people who
wanted ‘freedom now,’ the political
process has been damnably slow in
yielding up results.
“The source of the problem is
twofold: it’s a public disenchant
ment with government and political
leadership, and the obverse, that
the government has been finding it
difficult to get its own self untracked
to provide a sense of direction in
programs and policies to govern the
country.”
Even the government-cutting,
tax-slashing mood scaring incum
bents to death has in it the seeds of
more disenchantment, Cans pre
dicts.
“The danger of Proposition 13 is
that it’s not likely, in its implemen
tation, to yield what many people
who voted for it thought it was going
to yield. It’s a nice referendum
question but it’s not necessarily a
good public policy questton. So the
danger is the next time something
like that comes around, the turnout
will be again lower.”
THE FOUR R’S
Now that you've graduated from the first
three, you’re ready to learn the Ath:
Reality.
Peace Corps/VISTA will teach you about
people and places you’ve only read of.
REPS ON CAMPUS: TODAY & TOMORROW
INFO BOOTH: MEMORIAL STUDENT CENTER
SENIORS/GRADS: SIGN UP NOW FOR AN INTERVIEW:
CAREER PLANNING AND PLACEMENT OFFICE, 10TH
FLOOR, RUDDER TOWER.
what’s up?
Tuesday
PENTAGON AREA HOMETOWN CLUB. Will meet in Room 302,
Rudder Tower at 8 p. m. Rides and car pools to and from northeast
and midwest states will be discussed for the Thanksgiving
Christmas holidays. For more information please contact Darrel
Westbrook at 845-7103.
MARKETING SOCIETY: Will have a speaker from Foley’s at 7:30
p.m. in Room 207, HECC.
PRE-LAW SOCIETY: Charles R. Dunn, attorney at law, will speali
at 7:30 p.m. in Room 504, Rudder Tower.
PLANT SCIENCE CLUB: Will have pictures taken for “The Aggie-
land” in the MSC Lounge at 6:30 p.m. A meeting and a speech on
how to get a job will be at 7 p.m.
RICHARDSON HOMETOWN CLUB: Will have pictures taken for
“The Aggieland” at 7:30 p.m. in front of Zachry. Dues for this are
semester will be collected.
PATHFINDERS: Will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Room 317, Military
Science Building. Plans will be made concerning the TAMU-
hosted orienteering meet to be held at the Fireman’s Training
Center on Nov. 18.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS: Will
have pictures for “The Aggieland” taken at 6 p.m. followedbya
meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Room 103, Zachry. A mock interview will
be staged by a student and a Texas Instruments Recruiter. Nolon
Sutherland from the Placement Center will offer advice on suc
cessful interviewing.
AMERICAN HUMANICS ASSOCIATION: Dr. Candida Duncldey
will conduct a workshop in Human Relations at 6:15 in Room231,
MSC.
A&M WHEELMEN: Aggieland pictures will be taken at 7:30p.m.in
Room 141, MSC.
THE TRADITIONS COUNCIL: Will meet in Room 119, Military
Science Building at 7:30 p.m. A slide presentation on traditionwl
be reviewed. All interested students are invited to attend.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS: Plans
for a field trip will be discussed and Charles L. Waligura willspeal
on “Conception, Design and Operation — Role of the Process
Engineer” at 7:30 p.m. in Room 203, Zachry.
ENGLISH SOCIETY: Tom Jordan will speak on “Film Frolics'al
7:30 p.m. in the Basement Coffeehouse.
TSEA: Will have pictures taken for the Aggieland at 7:30 p.m. intht
Zachry lobby.
MECHANIZED AGRICULTURE CLUB: A representative from
Ford Tractor Co. will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Power ani
Machinery Lab.
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY: Will have pictures |T" V
taken for "The Aggieland” at 6:45 p.m. at Zachry followed byji ar
speech by Ms. Gustafson in Room 203, Zachry.
ASME: C.H. Britt from Monsanto will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Room omplete
102, Zachry.
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS CLUB: Will have officer elections
at 7:30 p.m. in Room 108, Harrington.
BOGART FESTIVAL: “The Maltese Falcon,” the famous story ofi
group of men who desperately search for a black statuette ofi
falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, will be shorn
at 8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. “In a Lonely Place,” in which Bogart
is the key. suspect in a murder case being investigated by a war
time buddy turned detective, will be shown at 10 p.m. in Rudder
Theater.
Wednesday
Room 212, MSC at 7:15 p.m.
BRIDGE CLUB: Will play in
Everyone is welcome to play.
HANG GLIDING CLUB: "Cloudbase,” a 33-minute film of hang
gliding from 19 sites in the United States, will be shown at 7:30
p.m. in Room 308, Rudder Tower.
TAMU ROADRUNNERS: All members are urged to attend this
meeting at 7 p. in. in Room 321, Physics Building, to discuss coming
events.
STUDENTS OLDER THAN AVERAGE: Will meet at 8 p.m. n
Room 205, MSC. All students are welcome who are beyond the
average age of university students.
ILLUSTRATORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jim Berry from Uni
versity Studios will talk on "Photo Enhancement” at 7 p.m. in
Room 304, Old Engineering Building.
BOGART FESTIVAL: “The Treasure of Sierra Madre,” the storyof % up t(
three American men who journey into the wilderness mountaim
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of Mexico in seareffi of gold, will be shown at 8 p.m. in Rudder lewwil ‘
Theater. “The Caine Mutiny," in which the crew of the mine
sweeper U.S.S. Caine is saddled with a paranoid captain whose
rule forces the crew to mutiny, will be shown at 10 p.m. in Rudder
Theater.
Thursday
POLITICAL FORUM: Wayne Peveto will speak on “Tax Reform--
Fact or Fantasy?” at 12:30 p.m. in Room 206, MSC. Pevetoisi
state legislator from Orange who has always worked diligently to
change the system. He was ranked as one of the Top-10 legislators
in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine.
GREAT ISSUES: “Human Rights and Soviet-American Relations
will be the topic of a debate by Robert Kaiser and Melor Sturuaat
8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Kaiser is a former Soviet Union c»rre
spondent for The Washington Post and Strua is the chief corre
spondent in New York for the Soviet newspaper Ezvestya.
PRE-LAW SOCIETY: Will have Aggieland pictures taken at7p.m
in Zachry. All members should plan to be present.
TAMU RUSSIAN CLUB: Will meet at 7 p.m. to make preparations
for a Thanksgiving dinner. The meeting will be held in Roo®
305AB, Rudder Tower.
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AGGIE PLAYERS: Presents “J.B.” at 8 p.m. in Rudder Forum.
CEPHEID VARIABLE: “The Magic Sword,” the world famous!
legend of St. George and his battles with evil sorcerers, dragousj
and witches will be shown at 8 and 10 p.m. in Rudder Theater. St
George and his magic sword, Ascalon, prevail against all oddsi»|
this enjoyable tale from the world of fantasy.
TOKYO ST€JiK HOUSE
AGGIE SPECIAL
$095
DINNER
Includes:
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Egg Roll
Fried Won Ton
Chop Suey
Fried Rice
Fortune Cookies
Specials good for students
Tues., Wed., Thurs. & Sun.
Closed Mondays
2025 Texas Avenue
Townshire Shopping Center
822-1301