The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wednesday, March 11, 2020 — 3A

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Tuesday’s primary, issued a 
statement in a press release 
condemning long lines to vote.

“At a time when Democrats 

correctly attack Republicans 
for voter suppression, it is 
disappointing to see people 
standing in long lines for 
hours today waiting to vote 
in Michigan and around the 
country,” Sanders said in the 
statement. “People should not 
have to miss a day of work to 
exercise their right to vote. 
This is an outrage. Election 
officials must address these 
problems immediately, and if 
necessary, keep polling places 
open longer.”

Mitra said he wished there 

were more locations to register 
in Ann Arbor to reduce the 
length of the lines.

Many University of Michigan 

students in line said they were 
willing to wait because they 
feel their vote matters more 
in Michigan than in their 
home state, given its status as 
a swing state. The University 
of Michigan-Ann Arbor has 
an out of state population 
of nearly 15,000, as of 2019. 
President Donald Trump won 
Michigan by just over 10,000 
votes in 2016. 

Engineering senior Viktoriya 

Kovalchuk had been waiting in 
line to register for more than an 
hour by the time she got inside 
the building. She said those in 
line were given the registration 

forms so they could begin 
filling them out.

Kovalchuk 
emphasized 

the importance of voting and 
said she wanted to change 
her registration to Michigan 
because it is a swing state. 

“It’s worth it,” Kovalchuk 

said. “I know Michigan is 
a swing state, and I’m from 
Arizona, and it’s not a swing 
state. So, I’d rather vote here. … 
(The wait time) is not ideal, but 
I think it’s worth it in the end. 
It’s a priority for me to vote, 
and I just became a citizen 
recently.”

Business 
freshman 
Grace 

Manella recently turned 18 
and voted for the first time on 
Tuesday. She said she chose to 
register in Michigan instead of 
her home state of Kentucky.

“I think it’s important to 

vote 
because 
it’s 
exciting 

that, when you’re younger, 
everyone’s voting and you can’t 
really 
participate,” 
Manella 

said. “I feel like once you can, 
you have this kind of civic duty 
where you feel like you should. 
It’s exciting to kind of feel like 
you’re a part of the system.”

LSA senior Danielle Boilen 

previously 
voted 
with 
an 

absentee 
ballot 
from 
New 

York but chose to register in 
Michigan for this election.

“I did absentee when I voted 

in the last election, and I think 
it’s awesome that I can register 
here on the day of,” Boilen said. 
“I think that’s a great thing 
that Michigan does.”

Rackham student Amanda 

Peiffer said she originally got 

in the line to register to vote 
but only needed to vote. She 
said she wished there were 
more workers at City Hall to 
help the large crowd navigate.

“I 
think 
that 
everyone 

should be able to vote, but I 
think that this is nuts that the 
line is astronomical. It’s just 
another polling place that does 
not run correctly. I think this is 
why a lot of people don’t vote. 
… We need more staff,” Peiffer 
said. “There’s just clearly not 
enough people working. People 
are talking about online voting. 
I think that’d be awesome. 
I 
think 
about 
the 
people 

getting sick and stuff with the 
coronavirus. How are they 
going to vote?”

LSA senior Teddy Kiernan 

came to City Hall to change 
his ballot from Independent to 
Democrat. This is the second 
presidential election he has 
been able to vote in.

“My first election I voted in 

was the general election 2016 
for the president,” Kiernan 
said. “Beyond that, I haven’t 
participated 
in 
any 
other 

elections. … Between the two 
options (in 2016), I wasn’t 
thrilled with either. I’m hoping 
to vote for one person here that 
can stand a fighting chance in 
the general election.”

News Editors Alex Harring 

and Emma Stein can be reached 
at 
harring@umich.edu 
and 

enstein@umich.edu. 
Reporter 

Brayden Hirsch can be reached 
at braydenh@umich.edu.

Mary Heinen, co-founder of 

the Prison Creative Arts Project 
at the University of Michigan, 
spoke 
from 
experience 
at 

“Green 
Decarceration: 
The 

Intersection of Environmental 
Justice and Criminal Justice 
Reform” on Tuesday. When 
Heinen 
was 
incarcerated, 

prison guards told her that 
properties 100 miles around 
the prison would not sell 
because the water was toxic. 

“If you got a cup of water and 

tried to make a cup of coffee, 
you can see oil on the top of it 
and little white crystals in it,” 
Heinen said. “And there were 
warnings in the visiting room: 
don’t drink the water, and if 
you’re pregnant, really don’t 
drink the water. But you knew, 
I’m drinking this, I’m bathing 
in this, my clothes are being 
washed in this. You knew you 
were in trouble.”

About 30 students, faculty 

and 
community 
members 

attended the event as a part 
of Earth Day festivities taking 
place 
at 
Michigan 
League 

Tuesday 
afternoon. 
Nora 

Krinitsky, Interim Director 
of the Prison Creative Arts 
Project, led the teach-in, and 
speakers included Heinen and 
Josh Hoe, policy analyst for 
the non-profit Safe and Just 
Michigan. Krinitsky said the 
climate crisis and the carceral 
system 
are 
critical 
issues 

facing society and younger 
generations.

“Those are two very big, 

complicated 
problems 
that 

can feel really overwhelming 
when you’re kind of looking 
at them as an individual,” 
Krinitsky said. “What that 
means is that both of them 
are going to require big social 
movements in order to make 
really significant change.”

Heinen spoke about her 

experience 
going 
through 

Michigan’s prison system for 
decades as she served a three 
back-to-back life sentences. 
As she was transferred from 
prison to prison, she said poor 
conditions were a common 
theme. 
In 
the 
now-closed 

Florence Crane Correctional 
Facility, Heinen said women 
often 
died 
from 
obscure 

medical conditions related to 
the toxic water. 

“As time went on, lifers that 

I was friends with had really 
severe headaches. You’d have 
a period for two months,” 
Heinen said. “They had women 
who had strokes, they had 

tumors, they had rare cancers. 
The generation before me, who 
were there when I arrived, one 
by one by one those women 
died.”

LSA senior Taylor Luthe 

came to the teach-in with a 
personal connection to the 
criminal 
justice 
movement. 

Luthe said her mother was 
incarcerated when she was a 
child, and she had to step out 
of the room for a moment after 
Heinen shared her emotional 
experiences. 

“These people, like she was 

saying, were her sisters and 
the people that she essentially 
grew up with while she was 
inside and were her family,” 
Luthe said. “Just the blatant 
disregard for humanity and 
seeing that come through in 
what she was speaking about, 
and also imagining my mom in 
that situation, imagining these 
horrible 
things 
happening 

to the people that I love was 
hard.”

Hoe 
spoke 
to 
specific 

connections 
between 
the 

criminal justice movement and 
climate movement. He said 
heat, diseases and poor water 
quality, in particular, affect 
prisoners disproportionately. 

“Prisons are the zero point 

of a lot of this climate change 
stuff,” Hoe said. “Mobility is 
what allows you to adapt to 
climate change, and you can’t 
adapt if you can’t move, and 
you can’t adapt if you can’t 
build or do any of the things 
that are necessary to protect 
yourself.”

Engineering 
senior 

Charlie 
Gerard 
told 
The 

Daily after the event that he 
appreciated 
learning 
more 

about the criminal justice 
movement 
from 
Hoe, 
but 

said 
the 
connection 
with 

environmental justice felt like 
a stretch. 

“Obviously, 
there 
are 

unfortunate cases as well, but 
generally if you’re in prison, 
you did something wrong and 
you’re there for punishment,” 
Gerard 
said. 
“Maybe 
the 

climate has an adverse effect, 
but I don’t think that’s a reason 
to remove people from prison.”

As an example of the direct 

impact climate change has on 
prisoners, Hoe told the story 
of Shawna Lynn Jones, one of 
many California prisoners paid 
low wages to fight wildfires. 
Hoe said Jones became the 
first firefighter to die in 2016 
when a boulder hit and killed 
her. 

“She 
was 
22-years-old 

and only three months from 

release, and she was getting 
paid basically nothing to go 
out and risk her life to fight 
fires for a state full of people 
who didn’t want her to be part 
of their community,” Hoe said. 

Luthe said she was angry 

when she heard Jones’s story, 
particularly because she said 
formerly incarcerated people 
often cannot apply the skills 
they learned in prison once 
they are released back into 
society. 

“I 
think 
(Hoe) 
was 

absolutely correct when he 
called it exploitation,” Luthe 
said. “It’s just blatant disregard 
for human life. … I think it’s 
absolutely horrendous that you 
could put your life on the line 
so that other firefighters who 
have not been incarcerated 
don’t have to do that. And yet 
you are not welcomed in … you 
have these skills, but you’re 
not able to use them.”

Matthew Lassiter, assistant 

history professor, said he’s 
noticed 
racial 
disparities 

between 
the 
student 

environmental and criminal 
justice movements in his 20 
years at the University.

“Environmental 
activism 

has 
largely 
tended 
to 
be 

white 
students,” 
Lassiter 

said. 
“They’re 
really 
good 

on issues of environmental 
racism, 
environmental 

justice, 
environmental 

sustainability, but it’s often 
centered around PITE and the 
School of Environment and 
Sustainability … It’s a different 
crowd than when you go to 
a mass incarceration event 
and see a lot more African 
American students and people 
of color there. To me, these 
issues are very intertwined 
and 
that’s 
something 
this 

teach-in can emphasize.”

After the event, Krinitsky 

commented 
on 
the 
broad 

impact of criminal justice and 
environmental justice. 

“These are both movements 

that touch you even if you 
don’t know it yet,” Krinistky 
said. “In some ways, it’s a little 
bit easier to see that when it 
comes to climate justice just 
because of where we imagine 
the climate to be. One thing 
that I say to folks who haven’t 
yet worked on decarceration is 
that I guarantee you that you 
or someone you love is not that 
far away from being involved 
in the criminal justice system.” 

Daily Staff Reporter Calder 

Lewis 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

calderll@umich.edu. 

Green Decarceration subject of event hosted by PCAP

CALDER LEWIS
Daily Staff Reporter

Teach-in looks at impact 
of climate change in prisons

in America, but I think Joe 

Biden believes in America. I 
think we need a president who 
is going to be the reset button 
in our American discourse.”

University 
alum 
Efos 

Idusuye also attended the 
Students for Biden watch party 
and spoke about his support 
for Biden and the need for 
unity within the Democratic 
party. 

“Bernie Sanders and Biden 

supporters are on the same 
party. I think it’s time for us 
to unite,” Idusuye said. “At the 
end, we’re all fighting for the 
same issues against poverty, 
against oppression, and other 
issues.” 

LSA junior Arden Shapiro 

attended a watch party hosted 
by Students for Bernie 2020. As 
polls began to report Biden’s 
large 
lead 
Tuesday 
night, 

Shapiro reacted to the results 
of the Michigan primary.

“I’m just utterly devastated 

for 
the 
organizers 
who 

poured 
everything 
into 

this movement … It’s really 
frustrating and indicative of 
how 
fundamentally 
flawed 

our system is,” Shapiro said. 
“I know it’s not over, I’m so 
you know, I will make sure 
our 
members 
are 
fighting 

and phone banking and doing 
everything 
we 
can. 
Drive 

to Illinois you know next 
Tuesday. 
We’re 
gonna 
do 

everything we can until you 
know the very very, very end.”

Daily Staff Reporter Sarah 

Payne 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

paynesm@umich.edu

BIDEN
From Page 2A

Ann Arbor has been named 

the most well-educated city in 
the country, with the highest 
percentage of people with high 
school, associate’s, bachelor’s 
and 
graduate/professional 

degrees, data that suggests 
that Warren would likely have 
found a captive base of voters 
in Ann Arbor.

LSA 
senior 
Martha 

Abrams said she believed 
Warren appealed to a lot of 
students due to her blend of 
progressive politics like those 
championed by Sanders and 
pragmatic policy initiatives 
modeled by Biden.

“Bernie for a lot of people, 

I think, especially in the early 
months of his campaign … 
seemed more like a radical 
progressive than I think a lot 
of people were prepared for,” 
Abrams said. “I think Warren 
was 
a 
more 
… 
palatable 

candidate. I also definitely 
think that having a female 
candidate, 
especially 
one 

who’s so deeply experienced 
in the political arena, and so 
consistent, and a front-runner 
always, was really appealing 
to a lot of people.”

When analyzing the amount 

of individual contributions 
in Ann Arbor and by U-M 
employees, Sanders finished 
in first in both categories. He 
received 2,859 contributions 
from Ann Arbor residents and 
521 contributions from U-M 
employees, whereas Warren 
received 1,685 contributions 
from Ann Arbor residents 
and 311 from U-M employees. 
Sanders’s campaign has made 
a point of relying on smaller-
dollar 
contributions 
since 

2016.

Professor Richard Hall of 

the Gerald Ford School of 
Public Policy discussed how 
individual contributions often 
come from the most extreme 
ends of each political party. 
He explained how Sanders’s 
grassroots 
campaign 

contributions 
could 
have 

significantly helped Sanders 
in the Michigan primary. 

“I think one thing we know 

is that the activists in a party 
and including the individual 
donors to candidates tend 
to be at the extremes … and 
(these) tend to be the people 
who turnout in primaries,” 
Hall said. “There is some 
reason to think that that 
bodes well for Sanders.”

Rackham student Nathan 

John was standing outside 
the Union on primary day 
campaigning for Sanders. He 
said the spirit of Sanders’s 
campaign appealed to him. 

“I think that Bernie is 

running a very grassroots 
oriented campaign, and he’s 

for me. The reason why I’m 
so passionate about him is 
that he does not accept money 
from billionaires,” John said. 
“I think it says that he’s a man 
of the people and someone 
that people are willing to 
get behind. It shows that 
we can change politics by 
focusing on individuals or not 
corporations.”

According to a Michigan 

Daily analysis of campaign 
finance records, in comparing 
Ann Arbor to the state of 
Michigan overall, the trends 
shift slightly, as the overall 
Democratic candidate with 
the highest contributions is 
Sanders with $802,595.66 in 
2019, and former South Bend 
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who 
received $730,651.04 in 2019, 
before dropping out of the 
race in early March. Then, 
Warren came in third place 
with 
$462,177.22 
and 
Joe 

Biden came in fourth with 
$408,175.22, both in 2019.

Hall noted that money from 

the political establishment 
has 
been 
flooding 
into 

Biden’s campaign since Super 
Tuesday. And with moderates 
such as Buttigieg, Biden and 
Klobuchar 
raising 
a 
total 

of more than $1,270,091.51 
in Michigan, it was unclear 
which way the results of the 
primary would lean up until 
the polls closed Tuesday. 

Money 
doesn’t 
always 

translate 
to 
electoral 

success. If it did, Sec. Hillary 
Clinton would have won the 
Michigan primary in 2016. 
Clinton raised almost triple 
the amount of what Sanders 
raised.

At the time, polls predicted 

that Hillary Clinton had a 
25-point lead over Sanders in 
the Michigan Primary. Polling 
website 
FiveThirtyEight 

went as far as predicting 
that Clinton had a 99 percent 
chance of winning Michigan. 
Yet, 
Sanders 
won 
the 

Michigan 2016 Democratic 
Primary with 49.8 percent 
of the votes compared to 
Clinton, who received just 
48.3 percent of the vote.

As an expert in campaign 

finance, 
Hall 
noted 
that 

money doesn’t tell the whole 
story. 
While 
funding 
is 

necessary to enter a national 
presidential 
race, 
Hall 

explained that past elections 
show throwing money at a 
campaign simply isn’t enough 
to win. 

“It is true that Bloomberg 

made a run because he spent 
all that money. But in the 
end, he lost, you know, pretty 
handily,” Hall said. “(Trump 
was) outspent by … three or 
four of his competitors and 
super PACs are spending on 
behalf of … Bush and Rubio 
in a way they weren’t for 
Trump.”

Hall argued that money 

doesn’t lead to the big wins 
that people imagine. 

“It’s not obvious that the 

money has a big effect,” Hall 
said. “Obviously, you have to 
have some money to get in 
the race but you know, it’s not 
clear how much it matters.”

Additionally, 
the 

momentum and circumstances 
that helped Sanders win in 
2016 are not as evident in the 
2020 primaries against Joe 
Biden. In a New York Times 
interview, 
Brandon 
Dillon, 

a former chairman of the 
Michigan Democratic Party, 
stated that Sanders is no 
longer the “novelty” he was 
four years ago. 

“I know people personally 

who voted for Bernie because 
they wanted to send a message 
to Hillary,” Dillion said in the 
interview. 

Dillon said people are more 

worried about a candidate’s 
electability and ability to beat 
Trump now. 

“People just want to win 

because we know who our 
opponent is and what he can 
do if he gets another four 
years,” Dillon continued.

After Warren suspended 

her campaign in early March 
without endorsing Sanders or 
Biden, her voters were torn. In 
a rally in Ann Arbor three days 
before the primary, Sanders 
stated Michigan was the most 
important state on the March 
11, primaries, urging voters 
that the only way to beat the 
political establishment was to 
vote on Tuesday.

“I 
understand 
that 
Joe 

Biden has the support of the 
entire political establishment. 
I got that,” Sanders said. “But 
we have the support of some 
of the strongest grassroots 
movements in this country, 
and I would 100 times over 
prefer 
to 
have 
grassroots 

support than establishment 
support.”

Hall adds that similarly to 

Trump, Sanders is raising a 
significant amount of money 
from individual donors. 

“(It’s) just not clear how 

much … difference and that’s 
going to make (or if) it’s going 
to be enough to help him 
carry the day … like it did in 
Michigan for him four years 
ago,” Hall said. 

Tuesday’s results affirmed 

Hall’s 
argument. 
Despite 

his massive campaign push 
in the final weekend and 
his hundreds of thousands 
of individual contributions, 
Sanders’s 
grassroots 

campaign was not enough for 
a victory in Michigan.

Daily Staff Reporter Julia 

Fanzeres can be reached at 
julfan@umich.edu

DESIGN BY JONATHAN WALSH

