A total of 3,427 Binghamton University students living on campus registered to vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, officials said yesterday.
According to an unofficial count on Election Night, the polls hosted in the Susquehanna Room of the Old University Union showed that President-elect Barack Obama received 1,097 votes to John McCain’s 148. Coupled with votes for other candidates, totals show that roughly half of the students who registered showed up.
Karen Davis, an election data specialist for Broome County, said yesterday that the 2004 presidential election results were not available because they were misplaced by officials. Still, Davis said that if her memory served, the numbers from this year were higher.
“The presidential year usually has you guys [students] all abuzz and registering up there,” she said.
According to a Nov. 3 issue of Pipe Dream, there were 1,871 votes on the BU campus in 2004.
The trend at BU was echoed in state polls throughout the country.
According to CNN, almost seven in 10 voters between the ages of 18 and 29 chose Obama over McCain. Obama also received a majority of the youth vote in 41 states.
Democratic nominee John Kerry won 53 percent of the youth vote in the 2004 election.
In an interview with CNN, John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, said that the youth vote played a “crucial role in Obama’s convincing victory.”
“I was happy that a lot of students were very passionate about the campaign and election, and I was very happy with registration numbers,” New York Public Interest Research Group President Alex Freundlich said.
When NYPIRG went to “get out the vote” by walking around campus during Election Day, most students said that they had already voted or were about to, according to Freundlich.
“A lot of students took it upon themselves to go to the Susquehanna Room to vote and they didn’t need a reminder,” he said.
Freundlich said that an experience he had with student Isaiah Rothstein, a junior business major, showed him there are ways around the problems that sometimes come with voting for those who are motivated enough to take action.
Rothstein had registered earlier in the year but his information was lost, Freundlich said. Because there is a policy that you can testify before a judge if there was a registration mistake, the two went to court Downtown to plead Rothstein’s case.
“The judge made us swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Freundlich said. “He allowed [him] to vote.”
While students were particularly passionate about this race, between the numbers and the spontaneous 500-person rally on campus following Obama’s Election Night speech, the effects of the election will spread beyond students.
Dan Lamb, the district representative for U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) a winner himself Tuesday, said that having a Democratic president will be advantageous.
“It’s a really big change to have a cooperative administration,” he said, adding that his office got a lot of initiatives going when Bill Clinton was in power.
Obama is much more interested in supporting local economies than the George W. Bush administration, which was not geared toward supporting economic development at the local level, Lamb said.
“We need an administrator that supports development like municipal infrastructure, sewers, drinking water and the environmental laws which have been neglected and ignored,” he added.
Lamb said that they know where Obama stands and that he will be very hands-on in the community.
“We’re very optimistic,” he said. “This is a real game-changer; we expect good appointments to be made and new leadership in federal agencies.”
Donna Lupardo, Democratic assemblywoman for the 126th district, Endwell, expressed a similar opinion.
“This election was about the triumph of hope over fear,” she said. “We are now being called upon to engage in a new type of politics, one that will address the numerous challenges that we face while restoring our image in the world. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that will affect all levels of government.”