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Senate Bill 254 - Opinion

Local Democrats Offended, Hold Press Conference

By Scott Sowers
Posted 3/31/09

A vote by Randy Truitt on the floor of the Indiana House last Thursday has local Democrats upset over spilt milk. Representative Truitt (Disctrict 26) voted nay on Senate Bill 254 which, as amended by the House, would allow college students across the state to use student identification cards without expiration dates as legal Voter ID’s at the polls.

In an attempt to blow an issue out of proportion and make a lot of noise, local Democrats held a press conference Monday morning in MSEE to express their “concern with State Representative Randy Truitt’s decision to oppose this critical students’ rights legislation.”

Speaking at the press conference was Eddie VanBogaert, the chairman of the Purdue College Democrats; Nick DeBoer, the president of the Purdue ACLU; Tom Deluca from the Indiana Young Democrats; Susan Schechter, former candidate for County Council and representative for Democracy for Tippecanoe; and current West Lafayette City Councilman and crusader against Big Towing, Paul Roales.

“I was sad to hear that my representative, Randy Truitt, decided to oppose this bill,” VanBogaert stated.

Tom DeLuca went for a less dramatic approach and stuck with the facts—or so he claimed. “On the floor of the Indiana State House, Representative Randy Truitt made one thing clear and that is he does not think Purdue University students should be able to vote using their Purdue ID’s.“

Councilman Roales went one step further by accusing Representative Truitt of attempting to “disenfranchise 20,000 students.” Note: Only 11,555 (out of 34,619) undergraduate and graduate students are from out of state, but who’s counting?

In response to these allegations, Truitt told the Purdue Review, “That is a total fabrication. There is no accuracy to that. As a 3rd generation Purdue student, I have always stood for students voting rights. I was very outspoken in my support to allow Purdue Students to use their Purdue ID’s last fall, and if the issue comes up in the next election, I’ll support it then as well.”

Truitt claimed he supported the original Senate bill which reaffirmed the position that students be allowed to vote using their Student ID’s. The House Democrats amended the bill to eliminate the requirement, as stated by the current Voter ID law, that photo ID’s must display an expiration date.

Purdue University’s current ID’s do not have an expiration date printed on them, but the Tippecanoe County Election Board was able to use the magnetic strips on the back of the ID’s to verify enrollment, which met the current requirement by law. The elimination of this requirement prompted Truitt to oppose the bill.

“The message needs to be told that I support students’ voting rights—I always have,” stated Truitt, “But we must preserve and maintain the democratic process. The current bill in the House does not do that. We can’t have people voting who should not be voting.”

VanBogaert called this reasoning a “red herring for the truth.” He added that the County Board of Elections “works hard to ensure voter eligibility through the registration process not with the ID’s which voters present at the polls.”

The Board of Elections, however, only verifies the address exists and the person is not registered in another county for registration forms delivered to the court house in person. There is no way, from these hand delivered forms, to verify a person lives at the stated address or is not registered in another state (registration forms which are mailed in must contain proof of residence, such as a utility bill). The Board used Purdue ID’s to verify enrollment status in the 2008 election, but this would not be necessary under the Senate Bill 254 as amended by the House.

Susan Schechter agreed with VanBogaert’s interpretation of Truitt’s claim that the bill would lead to fraud. “It makes me ask the question, does the Voter ID law prevent fraud, or was it designed to burden selected groups of voters?”

It’s probably not difficult to determine which groups Schechter may have been referring to, but in the context of the press conference those groups include college students.

Additionally, Schechter and House Democrats claim that the amended bill will further enfranchise members of the National Guard and Peace Corps. In what situations would these groups be denied a vote? It would seem that members of these two groups ought to already have Indiana driver licenses or ID’s. They are not likely to be from out of state, so what is the problem here? This is the real red herring.

DeLuca ignored the fraud issue and decided to attack Truitt’s character instead. “When people voted for Randy Truitt, I’d like to think they voted for someone that can think for himself. He’s not representing the district; he’s representing his own self interest. When politicians on both sides of the aisle are working their hardest to find common ground and collaborate on solutions, it’s disappointing to see Randy, my representative, act like a lame duck. In light of Representative Truitt’s failure to represent his district, I’d like to thank all of the other representatives who supported this bill.”

Is Randy Truitt acting in his own self interest and disenfranchising Purdue students? Unlikely, considering the student body (at least those who voted for a candidate in District 26) supported Truitt in an election which was won by 26 votes. “The student vote was an important part to my win in 2008,” Truitt stated, “and I’m very proud to represent Purdue.”

The amended bill passed the House on Thursday and will now proceed to conference committee where it is unlikely to be passed by the Republican controlled Senate.

Press Release from Local Democrats
Press Release from Purdue College Republicans
Senate Bill 254

PSG Election 2009 - News

Hatfield Holds Conference

By Jay Wood
Posted 3/30/09

PSG Presidential candidate Ryan Hatfield held a press conference Sunday to announce the endorsements from both the Purdue College Republicans and the Purdue College Democrats. Justin Nelson, PSG Senator of the Year for 2008-2009 kicked off the event. He said that Ryan Hatfield and Beth Corrigan have honesty and integrity and they will deliver on their promises. He also noted that Purdue Student Government has not done much for students lately and that Ticket #1 (Hatfield/Corrigan) would get to work and bring real results.

Nelson then introduced Jessica Bostwick and Alyssa Dewees, two members of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. They noted the controversy that had sparked the week prior, but they were still very supportive of both Ryan and his running mate, Beth Corrigan. The girls said that "it takes true leadership to bring Republicans and Democrats and together. They discussed the importance of putting aside differences in order to get things accomplished. After their remarks, they introduced the College Republicans chairman, Ross McMullin.

McMullin said there isn't much that Republicans and Democrats agree on, except that the election is over. He then announced that after meeting with all three PSG tickets, the Purdue College Republicans executive board voted unanimously to endorse Hatfield/Corrigan Ticket #1. McMullin added that the other tickets ofter more of the same and he asked the gathered audience, "What has PSG done for you lately?"

After Ross' statements, Bostwick and Dewees (the members of AGD) introduced the College Democrats chairman, Eddie Van Bogaert. Eddie announced that the Democrats' executive board had also voted unanimously to support Hatfield/Corrigan, noting that it was the ticket with "real plans for fiscal responsibility". He then compared the budget of Purdue's student government with the budget of University of Illinois' student government, showing that Purdue's was significantly larger, yet we don't see any additional benefits. Eddie concluded by talking about how Ryan Hatfield and Beth Corrigan come from outside of PSG and will bring real change.

After he was done, Beth Corrigan thanked both the Purdue College Republicans and the Purdue College Democrats for their endorsement. She talked about the importance of the two groups coming together to back a ticket committed to fiscal responsibility. Beth then introduced her running mate, PSG Presidential hopeful, Ryan Hatfield.

Hatfield expressed his appreciation for everyone who had gathered, particular the various student leaders in attendance. He said that it was monumental for the Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a PSG ticket. Hatfield said it was time to "pick leaders who do something, not just say something." He also said that it was time to elect leaders who will bring change, noting that PSG has way too much money to do nothing. Ryan then talked about the various student leaders who had gathered saying, "We have leaders here who work with children; we have student athletes, members of the Greek community, and leaders of partisan organizations." Hatfield talked about bringing all of these people to the table and that, if elected, he won't just speak for 1% of the students (noting that the Boiler Advancement Program would have done that last year), but that he would speak for 100% of students.

After his remarks, Ryan yielded the floor for any questions from the audience. With none, he adjourned the press conference.

PSG Election 2009 - News

PSG Ticket #1 Receives Bipartisan Support

By Jay Wood

The Hatfield/Corrigan PSG Presidential Ticket is now officially endorsed by both the Purdue College Republicans and the Purdue College Democrats. During last year's PSG election, in which Hatfield also ran, both the Purdue College Democrats and the Purdue College Republicans opposed the contentious Boiler Advancement Program (BAP) initiative. Hatfield also opposed BAP, which was defeated by a referendum vote.

PSG Election 2009 - News

Letters to the Editor

Response to "Dining Courts Don't Satisfy"

Two Strong Articles

Response to "Freedom of Choice Act vs. Declaration of Independence"

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