Hillel mock elections educate

To coincide with the elections held in Israel Tuesday, the IU Hillel Center held mock Israeli elections on campus to help educate students about America's closest ally in the Middle East.\nThe voting stations were held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union, Collins Living-Learning Center and Foster Quad.\n"We've had a pretty good turnout," said senior Debra Powers, who was running the station at the Union. By 2 p.m., the Union had almost 80 ballots filled by students passing through.\n"The purpose is more to get the information out there," she said.\nIn its first year of holding the elections, Josh Stein, assistant director at Hillel, said he thought the students that did vote were taking the mock elections seriously.\n"I think students are concerned about a million things, so it's hard to attract their attention," Stein said. "But I think it's been mostly positive."\nThe ballot listed 28 Israeli parties to choose from. The center's pamphlet described 16 of the parties to help educate students about what each party stands for.\n"There have been people that have came over and not known anything at all," Powers said.\nOutside Collins food court, Michal Levy and Jessie Mallor saw about the same number of voters come through their station as the Union.\n"People were really interested and asked questions and took it very seriously," Levy said.\nMallor said it was important to educate IU's students of what is happening in Israel, citing that many students thought they had to be Jewish to vote. \nLevy, who is Hillel's Israeli programs coordinator, said she wishes she could have been in Israel on election day.\n"I wish I could vote in Israel today, but I can't, so I'll vote here," she said.\nBy 5 p.m., the Hillel Center tabulated the votes from around campus, with Ariel Sharon's Likud party winning 77 votes, 33 percent of the vote. Sharon's party was the favorite going into the election. The Shinui and Labor parties came in second and third.\nStein said he was pleased with the turnout for the center's first year of mock elections.\n"It was a good opportunity to have some dialogue with students across campus about Israel's politics," he said.