Well, they moved quickly this time. As we wrote about before, the announcement of a joint appearance by Obama and McCain on campus next Thursday took student government and group leaders completely by surprise.

Just before midnight, though, the presidents of the student councils, club governing boards, and Panhellenic councils have sent an email to President Lee Bollinger, as well as fellow administrators interim Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger, Executive Vice President for Student Services Jeffrey Scott, and Housing & Dining Vice President Scott Wright.

The email asks for two accomodations: "a fair share of the tickets made available are apportioned to undergraduates" and "arrangements, similar to those made for the Ahmadinejad visit, should be made for all students, including but not limited to the installation of a large screen on South Lawn." In other words, "make sure everyone gets an equal chance at tickets, and give us another jumbotron." The full letter will be printed in Thursday's Spectator, but you can save yourself from waiting outside a residence hall until noon and just read it below the fold.

Another year has passed, and a new passel of eager young reformers have stepped up to the Executive Board of the CU College Dems. Bwog welcomes the whole crew, along with Chris Daniels (pictured), the new President and issuer of many press releases to come.

The full new board, and the email that announced them, after the jump

BREAKING: Alidad's CCSC ticket announced, despite his vow to not go to Bwog first (See Quick Spec Below)

Late last night in Lerner, amidst relatively minimal ballyhoo, Alidad Damooei unveiled the running mates soon to be on his ticket for the upcoming CCSC elections:

VP Policy — Donna Desilus (CC '09)
VP Communications — Veronica Colon (CC '10)
VP Funding — Jen Choi (CC '09)
VP Campus Life — Cliff Massey (CC '10)

Campaign details after the jump!

Monday editor Armin Rosen has election news for those of you who haven't spent the past four days sleeping next to a Kentucky offramp.

I believe it was Winston Churchill who called democracy the "worst form of government on earth, except for all those others that have been tried." Well bollocks to you, Winnie. An election-eve barnstorm of our great land reveals that while mob rule does have some pretty obvious hang-ups ($8 packs of American Spirit, anyone?), it's capable of producing an oddity or two--correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Belarus doesn't have candidates drunkenly pillorying puppet likenesses of their opposition.

Going state-by-state:

CALIFORNIA: Jack Abramoff's work representing Indian tribes made him an American hero, and it's great to see that courageous activists are following in his footsteps. Besides--Casinos on Indian reservations mean more money for schools and firefighters. And you support schools and firefighters, don't you?

NEW JERSEY: Forget property taxes, rampant crime, pollution, a long-standing reputation as America's armpit: the biggest election-year issue coming out of the Garden State is this horrifying ad from Republican New Jersey state Senator Gerry Cardinale. Making possibly racist accusations that your opponent has ties to terrorists is one thing, but that sock puppet was really uncalled for. And if you'll allow me a brief exercise in comparative political puppetry: though crude, the Gavin Newsom puppet produced some undeniably brutal satire. Meanwhile, Cardinale's obnoxious, purple-coiffed duck smacks of desperation--I'm no expert on New Jersey politics, but just as a general rule, election-week TV ads centered on a raggedy yellow hand-puppet are good indication that you're running out of ideas.

MARYLAND: What's that? A contested election in the politically homogenous, left-wing utopia of Takoma Park? Well I'll be damned. This calls for an investigation! Bowers, it seems, is anti rent-control in a part of the country that's only slightly more conservative than Berkley; Robinson likes recycling, local business and urban microfinance. I trust the Co-op has been abuzz with discussion over whether the right-leaning newcomer can play the spoiler to the older, carbon-hating establishment lefty, but somehow I think Marylanders have more important things to worry about.

Learned Foote and Tom Amegadzie of Class Action! The ticket triumphed with 42% of 483 votes. Sean Udell (Representative — iColumbia) was the only candidate to break into Class Action's slate, garnering the most votes of the representatives with 168 (probably because of the awesome carnival that he proposed in the debates). The only Class Action candidate not to be elected was Noah Baron.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that despite RealColumbia's strong showing on Facebook, they seemed unable to turn out their base. Vesal Yazdi and Tania Harsono came in second, 17 points behind Foote and Amegadzie.

The turnout overall was pretty low (even for American standards) and with under 50% turnout, Class Action's "mandate" is weakened substantially.

In other election news, an anonymous tipster reported the tearing down of a poster and remnants of torn posters in an eleventh hour campaign scuffle between Columbia's 711 Open 24/7 and Fight for Your Right.

Read more and you can find the complete results as well as the answers to iColumbia's Sudoku.

It's time to elect this year's leadership for the class of 2011. Check out the candidates with our facebook primary and debate coverage, and then vote here or swing by Low Plaza any time before 7:00 PM.

Meanwhile, Bwog would like to reward the ingenuity of iColumbia with a bit of free advertising. Answer will be available near the end of the day.

The College Dems had their elections tonight. Given that the top two spots were uncontested, Bwog didn't feel like sitting through them, but here are the winners:

President: Josh Lipsky

Vice President: Chris Daniels

Treasurer: Stephen Cox

Secretary: Isabel Broer

Members-at-Large: Jon Backer, Anna Brower, Kevin Mckenna, Nate Morgante, and Kate Redburn

So the College Dems elections are on Wednesday, and by decree of a constitutional amendment, everyone who wants to vote must be registered by TODAY at 5PM (that's a change from last year, when large numbers of people left Satow after their friends were elected). But only if you think you've been "involved." Here's a bit from an e-mail sent by Dems President Mike Nadler to declared candidates:

"You are all encouraged to scour your memory (and the facebook) for active Dems members, and to campaign for their votes by encouraging them to register and show-up on election day. The deadline for them to sign up is 5 pm on Monday, April 9th. That said, you should NOT pack the vote with your friends, unless they are friends who have been really involved with the Dems.

To be eligible to vote you must either have been involved (i.e. more than the signing of an Activist Council postcard) or to have a very good reason for why you did not get involved this year ( i.e. if you were CCSC President). We ask that you pledge to follow both the letter and the spirit of these rules."

Also, from the application, which asks aspiring voters to describe in detail their activities with the club: "If you have not attended a Columbia Democrats event this year and are interested in voting, please write a well-constructed paragraph outlining why you did not participate this year and telling us how we can improve our organization next year."

One more thing before we stop: the Dems also abandoned drop-down voting this year, which means that you can't run for lower positions if you lose in higher ones. And people have to sit around tables moderated by senior members of the current e-board. And they have to stay till the end for their votes to count. And they have to get their fingers dyed purple when they're done.

OK, just kidding about the last one. Good luck beating CCSC turnout, kids!

- LBD

The results of ESC's virtual election are in, and the winner is...online voting. In contrast to last week's abysmal turnout at the CCSC polls, over half of SEAS undergrads participated in this year's contest (well, barely...exactly 50.9% voted). And that's without the ability to directly choose SEAS' highest leaders!

Of course, the above figure is an average: participation dropped steadily as students got older, from 77.5% of freshmen to 31.6% of seniors. SEAS grad students, though, took the cake - only 1.3% of them bothered to log on to help choose the school's University Senator.

Full results for the ESC's democratically-chosen positions below...

Elections are everywhere this time of year (ESC, such as they are, from April 1st - 3rd, and the Dems on the 11th), and a few hours ago representatives from SGB's 60+ groups met to choose new leaders, welcome new groups, kick out a few others, and overhaul their constitution. Highlights from the Spring Town Hall after the jump.

CCSC elections aren't the only democratic contest going on this month--starting at 11:00 PM on Monday, anyone who wants to run for Engineering Student Council executive board positions can nominate themselves by e-mail. But don't start practicing your flesh pressing and baby kissing: all you have to do is appeal to a small fraction of the SEAS student body, because Councilmembers are the only ones whose votes count. Again.

There are two ways to change ESC elections procedures. You can put them on the ballot as a referendum, which requires 150 signatures and the approval of 2/3 of the Council, or you can propose a constitutional amendment, which requires the approval of 2/3 of the council. Last year, an attempt to change the system of internal elections failed rather pathetically when, although 67% of students voted against them in a referendum, the results of the vote were nullified because of low turnout. Last week, a similar constitutional amendment went before the Council, and "unfortunately" failed yet again to recieve the necessary support, according to ESC President Dan Okin (who called internal elections, by which he was voted into office, "a bad system").

So you can't vote for your president, and you can't vote on whether you can vote for your president, and even if you are allowed to, your vote isn't counted. And when Bwog tried to find out the percentage of those voting against the most recent attempt to bring democracy to SEAS, we learned that that information is secret and the vote was closed to the student body. At least you don't have to look people in the eye while they screw you?

Bwog presents a couple of blind items for campaign season. Any guesses?

WHICH Class Council member, running for re-election, admitted to a Bwog reporter at a mandatory candidates' rules meeting that she was intoxicated? She spent the meeting text-messaging and gossipping about the uselessness of the meeting - and she seemed none too pleased with the top of her ticket, either.

WHICH Class Council member spent all January telling friends she was running against her President, whom she had run with in the last election? She decided against it, ultimately, preventing a fair deal of drama.

And finally, Seth Berliner sends in this report from his Intro to East Asian Civ: Japan class:

Student: So, are you running for University Senator?
Senator-to-Be: Yeah!
Student: I feel like Student Council never gets anything done.
Senator-to-Be: Paper towels!
[pause]
Senator-to-Be: Didn't you see my e-mail?! I got paper towels installed in eight
frickin' kitchens!

- DPD

The CCSC gossip has been flowing like cheap wine at Columbia Cottage. For your edification:

Item #1: Chris Kulawik may have come closer to a CCSC run than anyone realized. As George Krebs struggled to put together a ticket, he received feelers from Kulawik's associates to see if he was interested in joining a Kulawik ticket. Krebs is associated with the College Dems; Kulawik, of course, with the Republicans. Krebs turned him down, and faced with a limited timeframe, Kulawik decided not to file.

Item # 2: File Felipe Tarud in the long list of candidates who claim that higher-ups in CCSC urged them to run. Tarud, who won't say which individuals wanted a candidate to oppose Michelle, considered it, but bowed out as he realized other candidates were interested were running and performing what he called a "cost-benefit analysis."

Ever more whispers from the SGO after the jump!

Well, things on CCSC are shaking out a little differently than we predicted a few weeks ago. With the filing deadline coming up tomorrow at 8:59 PM, here's where we stand:

IN - CC '08 vice president Michelle Diamond. Sighted in Lerner this afternoon taking campaign photos with her ticket.

OUT - CC '09 President George Krebs, who has decided to stick with class council for at least another year.

OUT -Dems VP Josh Lipsky, who couldn't pull together a ticket after asking around (including former CC '09 President and Bwog staffer Jessica Cohen) and has decided to stay with the Democrats.

UPDATE, 10:40 PM: Lipsky clarified with the following information: late last week, he was encouraged to run for CCSC President by ABC President Keith Hernandez and ESC President Dan Okin. He considered the idea, and found three out of the four other members of his ticket. Ultimately, however, "It was a move I wasn't ready to make," Lipsky wrote in an e-mail. "I started with the Democrats by being elected as a freshman representative during my first week at Columbia and I truly want to finish my time at Columbia by becoming President of the Dems next year (a primary year no less!)."

OUT - GOP president Chris Kulawik, who reportedly flirted with the idea but could also not find a satisfactory ticket. He had some good ideas in his column the other week--perhaps preparing for a run--that other candidates would be wise to look over. Especially the "bumbling mass of bureacracy" bit.

and, the big news...

POTENTIALLY IN - Dark horse sophomore Will Snider, formerly of the Varsity show, who's spent the year writing, directing, and acting in plays. He's working on pulling together a ticket (anyone want to be on CCSC?). As far as Bwog knows, he's the only guy standing in between us and a really boring race. Which isn't much fun for anyone, is it?

UPDATE, 6:18 PM: Another reason for a contested election after the jump.

- LBD

A few gems from the Columbia College Student Council meeting Sunday night.

"The theme for Safer Sex Week... well, it has to do with hot dogs and tacos." -Sophomore President George Krebs, announcing a planned Safer Sex Week study break.

"We're making Valentines for old lonely people." -Junior President Neda Navab, showing compassion for the elderly in planning a charity event.

And finally, a tidbit that may actually have bearing on the election: Marcus Johnson, a graduating University Senator, publicly encouraged Academic Affairs Rep Alidad Damooei '09 or Krebs to run for his seat, to much laughter and applause from their colleagues.

Damooei's LSAT proposal passed (after losing a clause that would have compelled the CCSC officers to serve as unpaid LSAT proctors), so he may have political capital within CCSC at the moment. He and Krebs - like all prospective candidates - must register for whatever position they choose by February 19.

-DPD