With elections approaching on Nov. 5, Bearkats around campus are registering to vote and searching for the best candidates to select.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the student Democrat and Republican groups will be working hard to inform people about political issues and registering to vote. Students have had several opportunities this semester to register to vote in the LSC Mall Area. Although no definite dates have been set up yet, students will receive a few other opportunities this semester to register in the Mall Area, sponsored by several student organizations.Once a student fills out a voter registration card, there is a thirty day process before the registration becomes goes into effect.The statewide and local elections will be held at the First Missionary Baptist Church on 10th Street. A few of the state positions on the ballot include governor, senators, Court of Appeals judges, Land Commissioner, Comptroller, U.S. Representatives, Texas Supreme Court candidates and Board of Education personnel. Local office positions include District Judge, County Judge, County Court at Law, District Attorney, County Clerk, Precinct 2 and 4 Commissioners, Justice of the Peace and several others.Students can formulate opinions about the local candidates by attending the Candidates’ Forum at 5 p.m. Oct. 15, at the Walker Education Center. Candidates will debate issues affecting the Huntsville/Sam Houston community and talk about their political standpoints. Everyone in the Huntsville community is invited.The candidacy for Texas governor is considered by many to be the biggest item on the ballot.Tony Sanchez, director of International Bancshares Corporation and chairman/chief executive officer of Sanchez Oil & Gas Company is the Democratic candidate for governor. Sanchez, his father and a partner founded the oil and gas brokerage company in 1973. The company has drilled over 1,000 wells in the past 29 years in Texas and other states, and remains a profitable source of exploration of gas and oil in Texas.Sanchez is a major investor in IBC, owning over 100 branches in Texas. His philanthropy includes many causes, but his top two are education and health care. He hopes to develop an early childhood development that will expand on health insurance for low-income children and a pre-kindergarten program for all who want to take advantage.Sanchez also hopes to create new multi-media learning material and an improved class curriculum that would allow high school students to take classes for college credit.Raising the salary of schoolteachers and reducing class sizes are among Sanchez’s other priorities. Sanchez also plans to make the Children’s Health Insurance program more readily available and expand on its funds. He also wants to lower the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly and improve upon or build hospitals in rural Texas.For more information on Tony Sanchez and the issues he plans to reform as governor, visit his campaign Web site at http://www.tonysanchez.com.Current Texas Governor Rick Perry is the Republican candidate. As governor, Perry has raised $9 billion in funding for Texas public schools and universities, increased healthcare funding by $6 billion and created the CHIP program, strengthened Medicaid and improved Texas’s transportation system.Perry formerly served as lieutenant governor for the state of Texas, where he improvised a state budget with Democrats and Republicans that included record tax cuts, teacher pay raises and extra funding for public schools. Perry plans to make homeowner’s insurance more affordable if elected for a second term. He also plans to expand health care services in rural and low-income areas, help small businesses to buy health care insurance, and make prescription drugs more readily available to senior citizens. Perry plans to develop a recruitment program for high school students who come from families with no college education. Other education issues Perry plans to improve upon, if reelected, include state supported loans for college students, online learning, work/ study programs and the state’s school budget. Rick Perry’s biography and policy initiatives are available online at http://www.rickperry.org.Students can register to vote outside campus by completing a registration card at the Voter Registration Office located at 1100 University Avenue or at the Department of Public Safety at 501 Interstate 45.