Dartblog

There are forty-eight hours left in this crucial Trustee election, and turnout is still a bit below twenty percent of eligible alumni. If you have not yet cast your vote for the independent candidate Stephen F. Smith—the fellow who has raised every single issue in this campaign, and who has the courage to fight for the broad and quiet middle of alumni and students—then please do so today. Vote at this website, and then call three Dartmouth friends and ask them to vote, too.

Low turnout, of course, helps the folks who want Dartmouth to continue to have a docile and uncritical Board; who favor the status quo and want to pretend that there are no problems to fix. In the most recent Trustee election, petition candidate Peter Robinson won with 48% of the vote and 25% turnout. The anti-petition-candidate constitutional referendum had much higher turnout—37%—and the petition process was reaffirmed when it was defeated by 51%. The higher the turnout, the greater the dissenting vote.

So do spread the word, get your friends to vote, and hopefully we will have good news when the results of this election are announced on, I think, May 19.