This year’s Presidential election made history with Barack Obama as the first African American President. It is also believed that another record was broken with the number of youth votes or at least greater than 2004.
According to John J. Sarno, a Coordinator at Stony Brook University for the Suffolk Board of Elections who was present at the Stony Brook University polling center this year and in 2004, thought this year’s election brought more voters than the 2004 election did. “It is hard to judge but in my opinion this turnout was more with about 78 percent of voters” said Sarno.
Though Sarno believed more voters turned out this year in the Stony Brook University District 223, which only consists of Stony Brook campus residents, the Suffolk Board of Election has numbers showing a different story. The Suffolk Board of Elections show that in 2004 there were 2,618 registered voters in district 223 and of those voters 2,554 voted. Now in 2008 2,597 were eligible to vote and 2,051 actually voted.
Sen. Barack Obama dominated the polls at Stony Brook University Tuesday night, garnering more than 77 percent of the popular vote. Obama, the democratic nominee for president swept 1,778 of the 2,324 ballots cast at the polling station. Obama’s landslide win mirrors the results of the primaries held at the university in February, when he collected 56 percent of the total number of votes. Obama’s chief rival in the presidential election, Sen. John McCain of the Republican Party, collected 218 votes that night – 9 percent of the total votes cast. Third party candidates, on a whole, scored 128 more votes than McCain, bringing their winnings to a total of 346 votes. Tuesday night’s results reflect the voting decisions of not only Stony Brook University students registered to vote at the school, but also residents registered to vote at the university’s polling place as well.
The turnout of Stony Brook student voters appears to have declined first time voters still felt the importance of making their vote count. Lana Corbo, a senior and a first time voter, expressed her thoughts about the election saying “I honestly believe one person can make a difference.” Corbo, who comes from a strong political family who served in the military, follows a saying that came from the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance “If you ignore your rights they will go away.”
Even though there were fewer voters who attended this election, opinions still held strong for voters. Another first time voter, Zeeshan Mughal, thought that voting was a way to get your voice heard in the government. “I thought that this would make my voice heard in the government. Voting is the best and fundamental way of being a productive citizen.”
Stony Brook’s turnout may not be as high as last year poll worker Karen Ohmar said “I think the turnout was good we had 72 percent of voter before seven pm.”
Attempts have been made to find out the national amount of voters but polls are not done being accounted for and may take up to a week to find out complete results.