FRED
HALSTEAD'S NAME HEADS COLLEGE "PRIMARY" LIST
{The following is the full text of an article by Tom Stewart, an Associated Press writer, which was carried on the wires of the press agency February 13.]
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WASHINGTON (AP) -~ If American college students would rather have Fred Halstead than Lyndon B. Johnson for president, they'll have a chance to let it be known April 24.
That's voting day for Choice 68, a nationwide presidential preference "primary" to be held on more than 1,000 campuses. The 11 students who make up the project's board of directors unveiled Monday the 14-name ballot that will be used. And, lo, the name of Fred Halstead led all the rest.
While Halstead's name may not ring a bell with the average adult voter, he is well known on many campuses as the candidate of the Socialist Workers party.
The directors said their method of deciding what names to offer the voters was simple: if a man was felt to have a "significant" following among college students they put him on the list.
Since the list is alphabetized and no candidates with names beginning "A" through "G" passed the directors' screening, Halstead's name is at the top.
The full list:
Fred Halstead, Socialist Workers party; Mark O. Hatfield, Republican; Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat; Robert F. Kennedy, Democrat; Martin L. King, Indepen-
dent; John V. Lindsay, Republican; Eugene
J. McCarthy, Democrat; Richard M. Nixon,
Republican; Charles H. Percy, Republican;
Ronald W. Reagan, Republican; Nelson A.
Rockefeller, Republican; George W. Romney,
Republican; Harold E. Stassen, Republican;
George C. Wallace, American Independent
party.
Time magazine is paying the bills
for Choice 68. The young directors said
the magazine has made no attempt to in-
fluence their decisions.
Robert G. Harris, a 1965 Michigan
State graduate, who conceived the idea
and is now the project's executive di-
rector, said the poll should destroy the
notion that the attitudes of students
are known and predictable.
"No one, absolutely no one, knows
what college students are thinking," Har-~
ris said.
Among the two million or more
young people who will participate in the
mock election, he said, an impressive
number are well informed and, but for
the law, would be competent to vote in
a real election.
"I feel the number is greater
among the 18 to 21 year olds than among
the 40 to 50 year olds," he said.
There were several suggestions
during the news conference that the proj
ect will give support to those who favor
lowering the legal voting age.
"We are not very far away from
it," said John Kesler, president of the
Associated Students at the University
of Utah. "Perhaps it needs just a little
more emphasis."
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