Few College Students Vote Early
By Damon Beres

The voter turnout at New York University’s Hayden Hall dormitory, a polling location for Tuesday’s primary, was something of an irony. At 8:30 a.m., the small, dimly lit room was full of people eager to cast their votes. The catch? Very few, if any of them, were students.

Instead, the voters were mostly business people voting on their way to work or older residents of the neighborhood. The majority of students who passed through shuttled off to class, headphones locked on tightly, ignoring the polling station altogether.

One exception was NYU freshman Brianna Sahagian, who stood across the street, holding a large blue Obama sign and stopping pedestrians for last-minute campaigning. She had already cast her vote.

“I was here at 7 a.m. in the cold,” Sahagian said. Though she voted before class, she noted that she would have missed class if absolutely necessary.

“[Skipping] one day of class could be worth it for four to eight years [of an Obama presidency],” she said, looking around for potential Obama followers.

But Sahagian found few her age. More typical were voters like Richard Morgan, a middle-age man who cast his ballot before going to work. He said he was eager to take part in what he described as an “important process” and declared his “desire for change.”

“I won’t be sad to see Bush go,” said Morgan.

Another voter, Hope Sloane, a local resident, was also in high spirits about the election.

“There’s only one day,” Sloane said. “You have the opportunity to vote.” She also added that even if faced with a line around the block or the possibility of missing work, it would be worth it to do her duty as a registered voter.

Yet, there was no line around the block, only a cluster of voters in the dorm commons room. As time passed, there was still a noticeable lack of students. Perhaps they had voted in their home states or were unable to muster Sloane’s energy; she’d been in the neighborhood since 5:30 a.m.

Standing outside Hayden Hall, cigarette in hand, Sloane expressed her opinion. “People complain, but you have this one day to make a difference.”

But no college students were nearby to hear.