Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GLENDA MILLER INTERIM EDITOR JIM FARRELL ART FRANK MGN. ED. EAD MANAGER EDITORIALS. Don't legalize pot-yet The removal of penalties for the possession and use of marijuana has been recommended by the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. In calling for the removal of the penalties in that area, the commission also said that marijuana should not be legalized and that criminal penalties should be retained for the selling and growing of the drug. The commission's proposals, which seem a little con fused to us, do have some value--though what good they will do is questionable because Nixon has said that he would not favor the easing of drug laws and by no means would he accept the recommendation that marijuana be legalized. We welcome the decision to remove the penalties for possession and use. We also welcome the decision not to legalize the drug until the effects have been fully discovered. The same should have been done for cigarettes, but unfortunately the medical profession wasn't advanced enough at the time. There can be no excuse this time. If this study is ever passed into law, it would do a great service the sense that it would take the law enforcement people away from the soft drug of marijuana and leave them to deal with the harder stuff. Women's rights wins We were going to say some very complimentary things about the passage of the women's right bill, but we think a few of our letters in today issue express women's rights rather well. OL/R ADM/N/TRA4770N 6TAND5 FOR D/4/&IENT &I7/CT L AW E/VFORCEMENT[ A6 OPFV5ED TO L/&ERALG AGON/ZING OVER T HE CAUSEG& OF CR/ME/F GP/RU AGNEW University analysi E lectio By CHARLES FELLENBAUM Staff Writer As this is being written, the "winner" of the student govern ment elections is yet unknown. But there will not be a winner this time, for being a "winner" implies that something of value has been won. And if one is to believe the complaints of several students, student government is a farce. Quite a few people have been complaining that the elections were not exactly on the level. However, their complaints have not been sufficiently substantiated to call for an invalidation of the elections. It was tried Wednesday. An interested student, Jim Leppard, sought an injunction to invalidate the Tuesday elections because of what he thought was a bit too much mismanagement of the elections process. It seems that ballots were left unattended in the student govern ment office, where anybody could have picked them up and walked away with them, and stuffed a ballot box. And in this election, as in every election, there were reports of students who had somehow manages to vote more than once. It Citizen Sanity The sar BySTANSEARS Columnist Sanity arrived at the student taproom on election day. "What are the politicians buying," inquired Sanity. "Nothing. Even they're apathetic about the election," replied his bartender. "Takes the fun out of the elec tions," reminisced Sanity.. "Yeah, ain't like they used to be, sighed the bartender. "Well, I hope that they un-slack themselves and get on the stick. Or I'm refusing to vote," boasted Sanity. Sanity was given a round by the bartender "for old times" and then staggered out the door. He walked down to.the voting area, searching for further enticements. "Where the hell they letting you vote?" "Over there. That small table with no one minding it. Feel free to take a couple, everyone else has." "Okay, by the way: are any of the candidates giving anything out?" "No, just a couple candidates out giving autographs. Sure ain't what it used to be." Sanity neared the table with no attendant. As he crept near, a bestial woman leaped at him. "Stay away! This is OFFICIAL STUDENT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY!" "But I'm a student. By the Fairness Doctrine of 1972, I am an official student. So stick It!" "Right. I thought it would take you an hour to guess the right password. Here's your ballot. Don't let anyone see you filling it out. Can't let the opposition know." "Know what?" "That there's an election going on. Shhhhhhhh." "Ooops. Sorry." Sanity whispered. Sanity looked at the ballot. He recognized familiar names that always seemed to be popping up in .thawnt~ndal sheet his-shantlal ns on the is not altogether clear how this is done, but it is a fundamental weakness of the present electoral process. Available information suggests that poll workers allowed a student to vote with only a single identification card, or fee receipt card. Anyone could claim that they had lost one or the other. Then that person would do the same thing at another polling station. Covering the election story for this newspaper, I personally saw the ballot counting machine mutilate quite a few ballots. These ballots had to be remarked by elections commission members; and the machine could make a mistake in reading the marks. Leppard's petition for in validation was made moot when he withdrew it under political pressure from people who thought that challenging the elections would destroy student govern ment. And in any case, Supreme Court Justice Brenda Haulbrooks ruled that the allegations were not backed up sufficiently to halt yesterday's run off. There are peqple who are dissatisfied with Tuesday's election, and there will probably be people who will be dissatisfied with today's results. te student a student newspaper. Sanity began discounting various names, choosing by a process of elimination. He soon eliminated them all. Sanity went through the process again, filtering out the candidates. He again ran dry. Once again, lowering his standards, Sanity failed to pick a good slate of candidates. He resolved to settle the dilemna in a democratic fashion: flipping a Kennedy half dollar, then checking with an 'eenie, meenie, minie, mo...' Ballot completed, he returned it to the election lady. "Here it is, should I put it in the box?" "Quiet. Let me see. Hmmm, you screwed that one up; that's not so cool either. Well, at least you wised up to vote for me. Alright. I'll stick it in the box when no one's wat ching. Can't let the others know about the project." Another student approached the voting table. "Pardon me, is this where we vote?" "Get it right or leave," the election lady screamed, hands on hips. "Pardon?" "Look, jerk: either get it right the first time or get your sweet ass out of here." She added. "Are you denying me my right to vote?" "You're getting hot." "You're getting me mad. I could call an official on you." "Come on, dammit, you're getting hotter." "Damn straight!" "No, you blew it! Get outta here!" The enraged student left, cursing the election. Nobody paid attention to him. Obviously he was unfit to participate in Student Government elections. As the girl left the table, a student ran over and grabbed a pile of ballots. "Harry, at least wait until I'm not looking at the damned things. "Oh, I'm .som-y. Yon .wanna . level? What all of this points to, at least, is that the procedure for election of student government officials leaves something to be desired. There always seems to be complaints about election results, and this year, Shelton Parker, candidate for treasure, has demanded a recount. He only lost the election by one vote, and this would appear to be a reasonable request. If he gets his recount, and it is not known at this time if he will, there is a good chance that the vote count will be different. Perhaps we will see another election for treasurer then. Obviously, the entire election process needs to be carefully studied and concrete suggestions made to improve it. One suggestipn is that the ballot boxes, which are too easily movable, be replaced somehow or at least the procedure involving their tran sportation changes. Perhaps there should also be a requirement that no student be allowed to vote who did not have his ID or fee card. However, those items are in constant use, and student tend to lose them fairly easily. This would keep students (Continued on Page 12) F election please turn your back?" "Okay, but be more careful. 'Others' might see you." The election lady returned to sit at the table in an hour or so. Another student approached the table. "I'm an official student. So stick it!" "Right! Sorry. We're out- of ballots." "But I want to vote. I paid my fees and everything. You can't do this! I demand my rights!" "I'll give you some rights, right across the kisser. Now you get outta here. We're out of ballots," the election lady explained. Sanity was watching the election lady. He observed the whole episode. Surprised at the events, he approached the girl, once again. "What's wrong, didn't he know the password?" "He knew it all right, but he wasn't one of us. He was one of the 'others'. Can't trust them, always trying to sneak into student af fairs: just because they're students. If I had my way, they wouldn't allow none of them into our school." The girl boiled. "Well, I'd better get going "Don't tell anyone the password. If they don't know it, they don't get to learn it. Right?" "Right." Sanity got home and called several of his friends. He told them all of the happening on campus. That was the reason that certain candidates had not spent any tnoney on publicity. Sanity passed them the password. That af ternoon, using the password, the friends of Sanity went down to the election tables and wrote in the names of animated characters like Citizen Sanity. Naturally, Sanity didn't win. Other animated characters did. And they never had .' aner election.