Students Celebrate Their New-Found Right to Vote
By Jamie Letica

One of the most important and thrilling aspects of turning 18 is being allowed to vote in a national election. The young voters stumbling out of one Union Square polling station early Super Tuesday morning were clearly a dedicated and jubilant group eager to make their opinions count before class.

The 14th St. area of Union Square had two voting sites inside NYU dorms. This “definitely encourages more people to vote and get involved because it is so easy for NYU students to vote. We just have to walk downstairs,” said Jessica Ulgenalp. She left the polls this morning feeling excited, she said, but still a little nervous because today is the first time she has been eligible to vote.

“It’s really important that young people vote,” said Ulgenalp.

Julia Fishman, 19, went to the polling station early this morning before her long day of college classes. She left feeling as if she had “fulfilled her role as an American citizen.”

“College students used to be one of the largest demographics at the polls,” said Fishman. “This is not the case today even though many of the issues directly affect us. … Only those who actually showed up to vote on Election Day deserve the right to complain about the government.”

Fishman said she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton because she believes Clinton deals with the social issues that concern her everyday life better than Sen. Barack Obama does, especially a woman’s right to choose.

Another student, Alexandra Bear, 19, said she believes it is her “civic duty to vote.” She lives in one of the NYU dorms where voting will take place all day, but elected to vote early this morning. Although she said she was “very tired,” Bear said that “when responsible parties know enough they should be voting.” She feels as if she is educated enough to vote and “had a say in today’s outcome, no matter how small it was.” Bear, unlike Ulgenalp and Fishman, has voted before - in a senatorial election in her home state of California. She believes voting in her new residence, New York City, is important because “New York is more of a swing state, and is more easily swayed than California.” Bear voted for Obama this morning because she denounces the idea of “two of the same families holding the United States presidency for 30 straight years,” which she considers an “oligarchy” or an “aristocracy.”

It is evident, even very early in the morning, how passionate many young people are about exercising the opportunity they have long awaited: voting in the presidential primaries and their first presidential election.