Maybe if they gave out beer more people would vote ... just a thought.

Today's Collegian and Safeguard Old State point out the controversy over the elections at the HUB on Tuesday. According to the Collegian, "[a]n elections official said she has received between five and 10 complaints about Tuesday's judge of elections at precinct 25 in the HUB-Robeson Center -- College Democrats President Enrique Ortiz." Between five and 10? She had to estimate that, she couldn't count?

One of the written complaints (which is posted on the Collegian's website), seems to mostly focus on the fact that Ortiz was not always at the polling station, and that he was organizing College Democrats both inside and outside the precinct to "get out the vote."

Centre County Elections Office department clerk Jodi Neidig is not too happy either, saying "she would have rather had poll workers from Bellefonte Area High School working the polls on Election Day than 'some of the college students we had'" (Hey, what's wrong with State College High School?).  She also said she "'can guarantee' Ortiz will never work for Centre County during another election." Harsh!

In response to that Ortiz said, according to the Collegian, that the county elections office is staffed by "incompetent losers" and the elections director, Joyce McKinley should be fired (rawr, anyone else smell cat-fight?)

We contacted Ortiz about the situation and here's what he had to say:

"I think that Precint [sic] 25 was run smoothly as were all the other precincts situated at the HUB. Furthermore, I believe that Joyce and Jodi are great people who have served the county tremendously, and should be praised for the level of organization with which they carried out the election. I do believe that students should continue to work polls situated in the HUB, and believe that we need students to be more engaged in political discourse. However, in order to do that we need to start talking about the real issues, such as which Presidential candidates will lay out policies to benefit students, how can Penn State become more student friendly in the way it carries out its dealings, and how can the 46 million Americans without health insurance be covered. The aforementioned issues vary in relativity to one another, but I believe that students are interested in candidates and issues that are laid out efficiently, and which are intended to benefit the student body. I fruitfully believe that students have great power in this wonderful country of ours, and we have to work hard to make sure that we use such valuable resource to the maximum. It's about the politics of Hope! 

Looks like Ortiz is backing off some of his statements (he'll obviously be a politician one day).

Maybe everyone should stop worrying about this nonsense and concern themselves with the fact that 29 people voted at precinct 25 all day! That's .45 people per hour. In comparison, there are 29 people in the HUB bathroom at any given time.