Students blast hasty predictions by TV networks
By Helena Payne
News Writer
Several Notre Dame students compared the 2000 presidential elections to a prolonged spectator sport and said the media made hasty predictions about the winner of Florida's electoral votes.
"I went to sleep crying because I thought [Republican candidate Governor George] Bush won, but I was happy to see that they are definitely making sure who the winner is and I'm still hopeful that [Democratic candidate Vice President Al] Gore will win," said Lisa Demidovich, vice president of the College Democrats.
Demidovich said that the television networks made many assumptions about the winner of various states too early.
"I think it was pretty premature," said Demidovich.
College Republicans treasurer Trip Foley said that he and other Republican Party supporters followed the election Tuesday evening, but doubted the early evening announcements by news anchors that Gore had won Florida.
"We knew that the media had called it too early and that it was close and we are still confident that Bush will win," said Foley.
The constant updates and changing information made some students question the accuracy of the political contest. Sophomore Irene Onyeagbako said that she wasn't convinced that the networks' predicted election results were reported efficiently.
"They barely had accurate exit poll results," said Onyeagbako.
Senior Tonio Buonassisi said he was keeping track of the results on the Internet by looking at CNN and the New York Times web sites, but he soon became frustrated with trying to separate the actual results from the media's often faulty speculation.
"It was almost like a game," said Buonassisi. "They were jumping the gun in a lot of states without mathematical certainty."
Onyeagbako said the election was reminiscent of a Notre Dame football game and she kept changing channels to keep up with the latest "play-by-play" information on both candidates.
"The whole screen was filled with red at the beginning just like the Nebraska game," said Onyeagbako of Tuesday evening when Bush gained a considerable amount of votes from the south and Midwest regions of the nation.
Senior Irish football team co-captain Grant Irons said the comparisons of the election to a spectator sport are valid and that he was excited for the outcome.
"It's overtime right now," said Irons.
However, as excited as he was, Irons said he was unable to vote because he never received his absentee ballot from his home state of Texas.
"I felt hurt. I felt like I didn't have a voice," said Irons.
Irons, however is the resident of a state that was overwhelmingly for Bush, unlike in Florida where the winner of the state will likely win by a small margin. Still, officials remain uncertain as to the precise number of votes that either Gore or Bush have.
"I'm glad that it hinges upon Florida which is a very diverse state," said Demidovich.
Senior Joe Napolitano, a Florida resident, said that he regrets his decision to vote for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
"I feel really guilty being a Nader supporter," said Napolitano.
Napolitano said he decided to vote for Nader because he was trying to vote based on his conscience. However, he said that he never realized that the election would be so close in his state.
"I assumed that [Florida] would lean to Gore," said Napolitano.
He said that he will be "more practical" in the future because he doesn't think the nation is ready to change the two-party system.
Another Florida resident, sophomore Christian White said that he talked to his parents Wednesday and reporting that there was a lot of confusion in Florida about the election.
"It wasn't clear whether they were voting for Gore or Buchanan," said White of some Florida voters who were puzzled about ballots on which Buchanan and Gore's names were possibly switched.
"Now they basically just don't know what to expect," said White.
The anxiety of waiting for election results is not new to either Notre Dame or Saint Mary's. There were problems when it came to counting the votes in both schools' student body president elections last year.
"It just goes to show that once again Notre Dame is once again ahead of the times," said student body president Brian O'Donoghue in jest.
However, when O'Donoghue and student body vice president Brooke Norton waited for the results of the election last year along with the other candidates, it caused similar emotions that students have about the national presidential election. O'Donoghue said that the current election situation proves that the individual is extremely important in the electoral system.
"What an amazing time to be a student voter," said O'Donoghue. "This is history right now. This has been remarkable to watch."
All News Stories for Thursday, November 9, 2000
