At IU: vote, win a Corvette

[hoosier]

'Vote Hard' stalls out

IUSA's purchase of a Corvette to attract student voters may break federal laws
By Josh Sanburn
Indiana Daily Student

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Published Wednesday, September 18, 2002

The $50,000 Corvette bought by the IU Student Association to entice Bloomington students to vote in November's election is now the top prize of a University-wide raffle.
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"I don't know if it's our role to step into an area of student governance to throw our weight around."

Bill Stephan
IU Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations
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Student Body President Bill Gray said Tuesday that students now aren't required to vote to enter the contest to win the cream and crimson sports car.
The decision comes as legal experts and an Indiana election officer question whether Project Vote Hard breaks federal election law, which prohibits anyone from knowingly paying, offering to pay or accepting payment for registering to vote or voting.
Gray said Project Vote Hard was a "celebration of democracy" that wasn't soliciting students to vote.
"The intent of our project has never been to persuade people to vote or not to vote for a certain candidate or question," Gray said. "It was purely encouragement to exercise a democratic process."
Gray told the Indiana Daily Student Sept. 2 that the plan would force legislators to pay attention to students' concerns.
"One of the first initiatives that we are going to do is the Vote Campaign," Gray said. "We are going to get 10,000 registered voters here at IU next year."