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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Election choices stressed at meeting

About 10 students gathered in McNutt Center's formal lounge Wednesday evening to discuss voting implications and election dynamics with political science professor Robert Huckfeldt. The event is the first of a two-part series entitled "Let's Talk Politics," and was organized by McNutt resident assistants and juniors Heather Danielewicz and Melanie Smith, The meetings are designed to provide students with information necessary to make informed choices in the upcoming election, and allowed a forum for informal debate.\nSmith said the main goal of the program is to mobilize voters. She said students often don't realize the weight their votes carry.\nHuckfeldt said his research focuses on public opinion in elections with a special emphasis on the consequences of communication networks.\nHuckfeldt said there are profound implications in the lack of political participation among young people.\n"The biggest cost to voting," Huckfeldt said "is the amount of information needed to make an informed choice; one must have a reliable yardstick or shortcut to aid in the voting process."\nHuckfeldt said there are multiple means to achieve this aim. He said while many individuals turn to partisanship, others realize taking a political stance is a "time-oriented process." As one ages, Huckfeldt notes, information is inevitably gained, thus facilitating informed decision-making.\nHuckfeldt stressed it is important to discern differences between candidates and their respective parties. He said a "common refrain" in the American two-party system is the notion that there is not a "dime's difference between parties," a phrase widely publicized by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in his 1968 presidential campaign.\nDue to the tendency of both parties to converge to a moderate, median voter, Huckfeldt said a confusing situation is created in which reasonable decisions made by the voter are difficult. Parties are therefore seen as invariably similar, a myth Huckfeldt said he seeks to dispel.\nHuckfeldt pointed out that all parties inevitably target the undecided moderates within a voting constituency, but said parties ultimately strive to keep their core constituencies content after the election, gearing decisions toward the moderate faction within the party. He said the decision to vote assumes radically important consequences.\nHe said in the current election there is no "single age-related issue" comparable to the Vietnam War "galvanizing" support in favor of, or against a single candidate. The key, Huckfeldt said, lies in actively seeking out information during the course of one's life.

"I'm usually pretty clueless about the whole political scene," McNutt resident assistant and senior Ramona Bolden said. "I really haven't paid much attention until this election. This program provided me with some important insight"

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