Pitt students flock to polls

Joseph Richardson stood on the ground floor of Posvar Hall and escorted the steady line of… Joseph Richardson stood on the ground floor of Posvar Hall and escorted the steady line of Pitt students to the voting machines.

“Have you ever used one of these before?” he asked students.

Every time a student replied “No,” Richardson walked with him to the machine and explained how it worked. Every time a student replied, “Yes,” he sighed with relief: “My man!”

With two hours to go until the polls closed, Richardson – the Judge of Elections assigned to the polling center that encompassed Posvar Hall – saw more than 630 students vote, a “nice number” for the midterm elections.

Although Richardson said that the number of voters in yesterday’s midterm elections didn’t compare to the number of voters in the presidential election of 2004, other polling districts around Pitt’s campus said that it had nearly doubled.

Blithe Runsdorf – the Judge of Elections assigned to the polling center located in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial – said that the number of voters in this year’s midterm election was twice as high as it had been for the presidential election two years ago.

Out of the approximately 1,800 registered voters in her district, 417 had showed up to vote by 5:30 p.m.

“For an off-year election, this is a great turnout,” she said.

Kathleen Gavigan – a Democratic committee member of the polling district in St. Paul’s Cathedral – also said that the number of voters for this year’s congressional midterm election was much higher than usual.

“In the past, an hour or two would go by, and as few as 10 students would vote,” said Gavigan, who has volunteered at the district’s polling center for 15 years.

Despite the fact that no more than three or four people usually came into the building at a time, Gavigan said that the number of voter turnouts, which was around 150 at 5 p.m., was considerably high.

Robert Harper, the Judge of Elections assigned to the same polling center, agreed that the number of voters has doubled.

Harper, along with Runsdorf, believes that the increase in voters is related to the efforts of organizations that have been working to encourage students to vote.

“I’ve heard that this year, students are being telephoned and urged to vote,” Harper said. “Since students are typically more liberal, it’s the Democrats trying to beat the Bush [organization].”

“Number two tries harder,” he added.

Student Vote Coalition, a nonpartisan organization working to educate students about the process of voting, is one of those groups.

“We try to give as much information as possible without trying to sway any votes,” said SVC member Abby Lerner, who was wearing a bright red T-shirt with “Vote” written across the front.

Lerner said that midterm elections are more important in swing states, like Pennsylvania, than in other states, which are fixed with their political representatives.

“It’s very hard to de-seat someone in the Senate,” Lerner said. “Most people who are in the Senate are in the Senate for good.”

Harper said that midterm elections mainly reflect the president’s organization and its surrounding policies. The Iraq War is one of this year’s policies that many people feel the need to speak out against.

“Midterm elections are not important in a country like Iraq where Sadaam gets 90 percent of the vote,” Harper said. “But they do become important when there is a war against Sadaam.”

Harper explained that the winners of the congressional elections will affect what the president can and cannot do. For instance, he said, electing a member of the Democratic Party for Congress could restrict President Bush’s policies.

Carmen Berkley, another member of the SVC, watched for disenfranchisement at the voting machines in Posvar Hall.

She said that throughout the day, she had to turn away some students who had problems with their registration. Some students had changed the address on their driver’s license and accidentally registered in another county.

Other students faced problems with the way their voter registration was processed. In some instances, the Board of Elections improperly processed students’ information, rendering them unable to vote.

But despite the problems that some voters had, Berkley still encouraged students to vote and maintained that student votes mattered.

“Students can’t complain about issues if they don’t vote,” Berkley said. “They need to exercise their civic duty.”