Brandon K. Johnson

Nader urges voters to back third party

Moments before Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader took center stage last night, Dave Norris, associate director of Madison House, challenged students to vote according to their consciences in the November election. The Democratic and Republican parties, Norris said, "have already decided what the questions are and don't want Ralph Nader to answer them." When the lawyer-turned-author finally appeared before a packed audience in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium, Nader addressed the need for universal health care coverage, a solution to child poverty, reformation of the education system, increased attention to budget concerns and an end to what he called a "two-party duopoly" in American politics. Nader first criticized the American education system for placing what he feels is too great an emphasis on measurements like grades and standardized test scores. "The most important evaluation of human intelligence cannot be measured by standardized tests," he said.