In the first of three campus town halls in California this week, presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke at California State University, Fullerton on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Though not as loud, raucous, or numerous as the crowd that greeted him at UCLA last month<\/a>, last night\u2019s showing filled half of Titan Stadium, which has capacity for 10,000 people. Another two hundred observers listened from outside the stadium, according to campus police working the event.<\/p>\n Paul has been touring campuses across the country for several months. Each time, he has drawn crowds in the thousands. In a campaign e-mail advertising this week\u2019s SoCal events, he wrote, \u201cAnd my hope is that ALL of these young voters will show up and vote in the California Primary on June 5.\u201d<\/p>\n With the voter registration deadline of May 21 swiftly approaching in California, campaign volunteers covered extensive ground at the huge venue. Around every corner their voices could be heard saying, \u201cRegister by May 21st\u201d and \u201cMake sure you check the Republican box!\u201d<\/p>\n Campaign volunteers would not comment specifically on the delegate strategy in California, but one volunteer at a voter registration booth did say that their focus is on voters, now that \u201cthe delegates are squared away.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul supporters have had considerable success against Mitt Romney in picking up delegates in Colorado<\/a> and Minnesota<\/a>, in part due to Conservative Unity Slates with Santorum and Gingrich supporters. Now that Paul and Romney are the only two candidates for the Republican nomination, Paul\u2019s grassroots support network is hustling to draw in voters who no longer have their first candidate of choice.<\/p>\n A young man and woman–Paul supporters who claimed to have completed 500 and 700 campaign calls, respectively, in a single day–stood in the line around Titan Stadium before the candidate\u2019s speech. Along with them was their friend, Noah Caird, who said his choice this election cycle had always been between Santorum and Paul.<\/p>\n \u201cI just know I\u2019m not going to vote for someone who supports abortion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Paul is personally against abortion but sees the issue as one to be handled by the states, not the federal government.<\/p>\n During his speech, Paul drew cheers with his usual calls to repeal the PATRIOT Act and to restore personal and economic liberties, but he also framed his points in terms of more recent current events. Without directly mentioning the recent passage in the House of Representatives of the Cybersecurity Information and Sharing Protection Act (CISPA), he quickly turned his call to action toward maintaining the free flow of information.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good side of it: We have the Internet,” he said. “The scary part of it is they know it, and they\u2019re trying to take the Internet away from us\u2014and we\u2019re not going to let them.\u201d<\/p>\n He also discussed the National Security Agency\u2019s Utah Data Center<\/a>, which Wired recently reported is intended to \u201cintercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world\u2019s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic cables.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Paul warned that the data center \u201ccan hold more records than any one establishment before it,\u201d and he condemned the NSA for its intention to track so much data.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t need that kind of information,” he said. “They\u2019re supposed to do the opposite. We\u2019re supposed to have openness in government and privacy for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n Fix Contributor Julie Ershadi <\/a>is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.<\/em><\/p>\n Click here to Like The College Fix<\/em> on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n