{"id":206,"date":"2018-11-16T13:19:45","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/?p=206"},"modified":"2018-11-16T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T19:19:45","slug":"uww-students-flock-to-the-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/2018\/11\/16\/uww-students-flock-to-the-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"UWW students flock to the polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

By BRAD ALLEN<\/strong> \/ Webhawk News<\/p>\n

Before a collection of absentee ballots were accounted for and Democratic candidate Tony Evers rode a so-called \u201cBlue Wave\u201d to victory in the Wisconsin 2018 gubernatorial election, students at the University of Wisconsin \u2013 Whitewater kept their eyes glues to their phones and TV screens to watch the results unfold.<\/p>\n

Some students gathered in Timothy J. Hyland Hall in room 1302 to participate in a watch party hosted by the UW-Whitewater College Democrats. When the winning vote was called at 8:03 p.m. for U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic incumbent, several students rose from their seats and cheered as the room erupted with thunderous applause.<\/p>\n

Other students were just leaving the polls in the University Center\u2019s Hamilton Room, which closed at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge issue getting students out to vote,\u201d said junior Megan Martin, chairwoman of the UW-Whitewater College Democrats. \u201cA lot of students I\u2019ve talked to early-voted or absentee voted. There was a huge turnout in early voting this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Isabel Guerrero voted in her second-ever election experience. She said there was no irregular draw to the polls, other than to exercise her right.<\/p>\n

The waiting line wasn\u2019t too bad for Isabel, whose voting ward had the shorter of two lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the end, I know they get busy, just \u2019cause there\u2019s fewer workers,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

But for sophomore Jack Bolog, the line to enter the polls was much longer.<\/p>\n

He encountered \u201cunfortunate odds\u201d of being in the line for Wards 1-9 and persons with last names beginning with letters A through L.<\/p>\n

But, he said, \u201cI think that\u2019s outside of their [the poll workers] control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019d be cool to see an independent party win,\u201d Bolog said of his hopes for election results. \u201cI voted for Maggie Turnbull [for governor] because she\u2019s big into upholding the environment and being a good person, and I also like those ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolog said he decided to vote around 7 p.m., just one hour before the polls closed, because a friend teased him into going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a terrible American, I didn\u2019t want to be an adequate American,\u201d Bolog said. \u201cI\u2019ll settle on being a subpar American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolog was voter No. 1,077. Guerrero was No. 1,074.<\/p>\n

Last year, UW-Whitewater had approximately 12,000 students enrolled who are of legal voting age and citizenship status, according to a 2017 report. Those numbers remain somewhat consistent with this year, with only a slight decrease in student enrollment reported in September.<\/p>\n

Junior Casey Seltrecht said it was \u201cpretty easy\u201d for him to register and vote Tuesday. The process took him all of a half-hour.<\/p>\n

He also decided to vote about an hour before the polls because \u201cthis really, really cute girl told me I should go vote, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was his first time voting.<\/p>\n

Seltrecht said he\u2019s usually \u201cvery informed\u201d on elections issues, and he didn\u2019t feel his vote was cast without sufficient thought put into candidates\u2019 positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I would want to see Tony Evers win,\u201d he said, correctly guessing the outcome of the gubernatorial race. \u201cI don\u2019t hate Scott Walker, but it\u2019d just time for somebody new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Darius Sanders voted for the first time Tuesday. He tried voting in the 2016 presidential election in Milwaukee, but was unable to do so because he went to the wrong polling place for his address at the time.<\/p>\n

He felt inclined to vote this time around because \u201cbeing black in America, I\u2019m afraid, and if there\u2019s anything I can do to be less afraid, I think voting is the best way to do that. African Americans\u2019 voices don\u2019t always get heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders said he voted mostly Democratic this election, but he feels even split on party affiliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want an actual, honest politician that has a plan that makes sense,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cPeople\u2019s politics really come from what makes them most comfortable. The super poor always gets the brunt of the stick. \u2026 the disbarment of the middle class is a threat to the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BRAD ALLEN \/ Webhawk News Before a collection of absentee ballots were accounted for and Democratic candidate Tony Evers rode a so-called \u201cBlue Wave\u201d to victory in the Wisconsin 2018 gubernatorial election, students at the University of Wisconsin \u2013 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/webhawknews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}