By: Lian Bunny
News Assignment Editor
Dr. Chris Stanley, St. Bonaventure professor of theology, is planning to transport students to vote in Allegany on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
The university van will leave every hour on the hour from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Participants should meet in the kitchen area of the Thomas Merton Center. Registration for the ride is not necessary.
Students can contact Stanley for more information at cstanley@sbu.edu or (716) 372-4232.
Stanley estimates the voting process to be 15-20 minutes.
Students who attend must be registered to vote in Allegany.
Democrat Martha Robertson and Republican Tom Reed are running in the New York 23 Congressional District elections.
Robertson has been a member of the Tompkins County Legislature since 2002, being a chairperson from 2010-2013.
Reed is a 2-term incumbent.
For more information on the congressional candidates, students can visit www.marthaforny.com and http://reed.house.gov.
“There is no other big election in this district,” said Stanley. “When you don’t have a lot of turnout, every vote matters. At this point, the congressional election is too close to call. It is one of those rare situations where how someone votes could really affect the election.”
Students can also volunteer for either party this weekend to help make phone calls or go door to door, getting people out to vote.
“It’s important to exercise [your] duty as a citizen,” Stanley said. “Whoever wins and gets a vote in Congress is going to affect [students] – job creation, student debt, student loans, taxes and a host of other issues that will affect students in the future.”
