Consistent flow of voters keeps polls busy throughout day

When the polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday at Jadwin Hall, several people were already waiting in line to vote. As the day progressed, the crowd of voters in Princeton Township District 12 — covering parts of Forbes and Butler colleges — ebbed and flowed, but voters were consistently at the polls.

"Although there have been some lulls in the crowd, it has been pretty steady overall," Democratic Party poll watcher James Schwerin said.

Poll worker George Hansen, who has worked during several elections, said "there has been a lot of activity" at the polls in comparison to previous election years in Princeton Township.

Longtime poll worker Christina Terry agreed.

"On other election days, I've had lots of time to read or at least not feel very busy while working," she said. "But this year there have been so many people coming to vote that I really haven't been able to stop working."

Among the voters who descended on Jadwin a large majority were students, poll workers and poll watchers. As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday evening, approximately 400 regular votes had been cast, along with 50 provisional votes, Terry said.

The majority of provisional votes were students living in the Ellipse Dormitory, Hansen said. Although they were registered in District 12, their names were not included in the list of voters at Jadwin.

"Most the students who are voting here are voting for the first time," Hansen said.

Kent Cheng '06 is one such voter. "This was my first time voting and it was a painless procedure," he said.

"For all the hype of the election, the actual voting was anticlimactic," Cheng added. "But I guess it's not supposed to be all that exciting."

Voting was not quite as easy for Ruth Fombrum '08, also a first-time voter.

"My name was spelled wrong, so I had to fill out a special form to correct it, but then I was able to vote just like everyone else," she said.

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But not all students who flocked to the polls were able to cast their votes.

Byron Austin '07 had mistakenly believed he would be able to vote at Jadwin, despite having registered in a different district of New Jersey. "I registered at home in North Jersey and thought it didn't matter and that it would be OK to vote here since it's the same state," he said.

"I can file a provisional ballot, but [the election workers] say that it probably won't count since I'm not registered in Princeton," he added. "I guess I'll just wait for next time to vote."

Cases like Austin's were rare, said Democratic Party poll watcher Jeffrey Orleans.

Poll watchers were at the polls to make sure no voters were intimidated or otherwise discouraged from voting.

"Republicans had the same right to be here as we have, but none chose to watch this polling place," Orleans said.

Orleans and Schwerin were responsible for recording the names of voters at Jadwin, former College Democrats president Owen Conroy '05 said.

Conroy was one of dozens of volunteers working for the combined forces of the local Democratic Party, Princeton College Democrats and Rush Holt's congressional campaign.

"We're really trying to get out the vote among students," he said. "This is when politics really matter."