voting – The Oberlin Review

City Council Candidates Engage With Voters

Rachel Serna-Brown and Anisa Curry Vietze

October 4, 2019

Eleven local candidates running for Oberlin City Council met with voters at The First Church in Oberlin for Tuesday’s Community Candidates Night. The event was organized by Oberlin’s chapter of the League of Women Voters with the goal of giving voters the opportunity to ask the candidates questions about local issues. In previous years, Community Candidates Night has showcased candidates for other offices in addition to City Council, such as Ohio State Senate, the county auditor’s office, and local judicial spots. College Science Librarian Alison Ricker — who is a member of Oberlin’s LWV and helped organize the event — explained why this year’s event only focused on council. “The only candidates who spoke were ...

Oberlin Primary Election Looks to Renew Key Tax Levies

April 26, 2019

Ohio’s primary election on May 7 will decide whether the city of Oberlin will renew two pre-existing taxes — an income tax that supports the city’s general fund and a tax levy for the benefit of the public library. The five-year, 0.2 percent income tax levy supports the operating and capital improvement expenses that go toward the City’s general fund. The levy is estimated to generate $618,889 in 2019 alone and city officials predict that this number will stay consistent for years to co...

Students Should Recognize Ohioans as Neighbors, Not Just Voters

Elmo Tumbokon, Contributing Writer

February 15, 2019

Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers and organizer of the Delano Grape Strikes, reminded a crying audience the day after the 2016 election, “This will not be the first time your country will break your heart.” Hearing that from the crowd, my heart pulled. And my heart sighed. And my heart grieved. But we picked ourselves up. That election energized my generation. It made us eager to campaign harder next time, and it made those of us who didn’t campaign regret it. In the 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout of people ages 18-29 increased by 10 percent since the 2014 midterms. This has much to do with the rise in young campaign volunteers knocking on doors and ringing telephone lines, many...

Students Must Vote in Upcoming Senate Elections

Cecilia Wallace, Contributing Writer

February 8, 2019

This article is part of the Review’s Student Senate column. In an effort to increase communication and transparency, student senators will provide personal perspectives on recent events on campus and in the community. Today’s seniors have lived through wild times at Oberlin College. There were high-profile protests and thinkpieces, President Carmen Twillie Ambar was inaugurated, and the College began teaching spin classes. The College will continue to make serious changes as it grapples with the evolving landscape of higher education through the Academic and Administrative Program Review process. In that time, Student Senate has transformed itself as well. Over the past couple of years, student governmen...

Dear Senator Sherrod Brown, Please Run

Ilana Foggle, Columnist

November 30, 2018

The time has come for politicians all over the country to decide whether or not they will be running for president in 2020. The process is starting now, before candidates officially declare their candidacy, so they can put together presidential exploratory committees, build campaign teams, and start hitting the campaign trail. People like Senators Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren, as well as former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, have already begun the process of declaring their candidacy. However, there is one person who is missing from this robust list of qualified candidates: Senator Sherrod Brown. Unlike many of my past articles, this article is not a call-to-action for Oberlin...

Thank You For Passing Issue 11

David Hall, Superintendent, Oberlin City Schools

November 30, 2018

Oberlin City Schools would like to thank all of our parents, staff, students, and community members for supporting Issue 11. It has been a long journey. The district has been engaged in exploring and researching new school facilities for over 10 years. The vision for the district is to design and create a new state-of-the-art facility for our students and community. This will provide the district with future cost savings, security enhancements, and advanced technology. With the passing of Issue 11, the vision has become a reality. I would like to thank our Bond Committee, Facilities Committee, previous superintendents (John Schroth and Geoff Andrews), the School Board, and community members for all of the hard work...

Voter Suppression Threatens Democracy

Ilana Foggle, Columnist

November 9, 2018

After more than a year of local and state politicians campaigning around the country, the midterm elections are finally over and the results are in. The much-discussed “blue wave” dominated in states like Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but failed to reach key races in Florida, Texas, Georgia — and Ohio. Regardless of whether or not you are pleased with Tuesday’s outcome, now is not the time to rest. The midterm election results show us a couple of things. First, there are many voters in key states who are discontent with the Republican Party and have mobilized to create change. This phenomenon was exemplified in Texas, where Democrats campaigned on both a state and national level for Representative Beto...

Voters Should Consider Third Parties

Lisa Kavanaugh, Oberlin Resident

November 2, 2018

As we come closer to the elections, it is with great sorrow we watch as the “corrupt corporate two” censor other viable gubernatorial candidates on the ballot from the debates. Protests against this censorship were held at Dayton University, Marietta College, and Cleveland University. The City Club’s formation of the privately owned Ohio Debate Commission has been petitioned from the onset of their formation to include candidates on the ballot in their debates. Even if the number of people who do not vote decide to go to the polls and vote for a third party, that party can win. When one feels as if they have no choice, it feeds the greed-driven duopoly, and this is exactly what folks who speak of “spoiler”...

Vote Them Out

Editorial Board

November 2, 2018

It’s been nearly two years since the devastation of Election Day 2016, when the American public decided to elevate someone who represents the worst among us in almost every way to the country’s highest office. In that time, Republicans have been both busy and effective. They’ve laid out an alarming agenda and achieved much of it. The far-right has become emboldened. The cowards who disguised themselves as moderate conservatives throughout the Obama years have been empowered to let their true colors show. With Trump at the helm, the GOP has launched attacks on women, people of color, Jewish people, trans people, low-income communities, the press, and countless other constituencies that contribute greatly to...

Jewish Trump Voters Have Blood on Their Hands

Daniel Markus, Contributing Writer

November 2, 2018

Editor’s note: This article contains mention of anti-Semitism and gun violence. I have been trying to escape Judaism for a long time. As a child, I hated the services my parents schlepped me along to — they were boring, in a language I didn’t know, and involved a lot of standing. Early in my teens, I braced against my Hebrew school teachers. They all seemed convinced that Israel could not be criticized whatsoever for its violence in retaliation to rocket attacks, no matter how many innocent civilians were killed. Later, in high school, I completely rejected God, identifying passionately as an atheist. When I got to college, though, it was different. Suddenly, knowledge of the Holocaust was not a given, I enco...

Speak Up, Support Survivors, Vote in November

Ilana Foggle, Columnist

October 12, 2018

Leading up to the midterm elections, Ilana Foggle will be writing articles for the Review about local candidates and issues to increase awareness of Oberlin and Ohio politics. Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of sexual assault, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and victim-shaming. Meet Jim Jordan. Republican Jim Jordan has been the representative for Ohio’s 4th Congressional District since his election in 2006. In 2015, Jim Jordan founded the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most active conservative and libertarian members of Congress. Since his election, Jim Jordan has voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and funding enforcement of equal pay for women. He has voted to r...

Voting Difficult for Off-Campus Students

Kevin Weidenbaum, Director of Client Services Emeritus

October 12, 2018

If you are a student registered to vote in Ohio and are living off-campus, you might encounter some difficulty when voting at your precinct’s location if you can’t provide the proper identification. Utility bills, bank statements, paychecks, and government documents are generally valid if they include the current street address where you are living (and registered) and are dated within the past year. If all your mail is directed to your OCMR number, then you have a problem. Please note that out-of-state driver’s licenses, passports, Oberlin College ID cards, leases, and Social Security cards are not adequate to receive a regular ballot. Students living off-campus received an email Sept. 25 from the Dean of Students...