The election.

On October 31, 2004, when two officers of the Network of Feminist Student Activists at the University of Arizona helped set up a voter-registration drive on the UA mall, a local Fox affiliate news team showed up and accused them of "potentially signing up students to commit felonies." Despite a 1979 Supreme Court ruling affirming the students' right to register and vote where they attend school, students often encountered difficulties in this recent election. A Harvard survey of 24 colleges and universities found that one-third were not complying with the law to help register their students. In addition, local and state officials tried to prevent students from registering and voting at William and Mary, the University of New Hampshire, Skidmore, Hamilton, and Henderson State University in Arkansas (The Nation, October 11, 2004).

In "2004 Elections" (ZNet/Electorial Politics, www.zmag.org, November 29, 2004), Noam Chomsky writes an extended analysis of the election and what the results say, or do not say, about the state of the country or the popular mood. He encourages us to look to other sources that carry far more important lessons. As Chomsky says, "Public opinion in the US is intensely monitored, and while caution and care in interpretation are always necessary, these studies are valuable resources. We can also see why the results, though public, are kept under wraps by the doctrinal institutions. That is true of major and highly informative studies of public opinion released right after the election, notably by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) and the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the U. of Maryland (PIPA)." These studies, Chomsky says, "are encouraging and hopeful. They show that there are substantial opportunities for education and organizing, including the development of potential electoral alternatives."