Election procedures at voting locations across campus went smoothly yesterday, save for a handful of isolated mishaps.
Those who chose to be among the first to vote at Harnwell College House were kept waiting due to a disruption caused by a volunteer poll watcher that resulted in police intervention.
According to College sophomore Stephen Morse, the 21st division's judge of elections, a woman unaffiliated with the University was illegally trying to fix a voting machine that broke after five votes were cast at 6:30 a.m.
Morse said that, when he tried to stop her, she caused an uproar.
While fixing the booth himself, he said he called both the Penn and Philadelphia police, who removed the woman and ended her disruption of election procedures for the 50 or so students waiting in line to vote.
The woman is reported to be the fiancee of Kevin Fassett, the Democratic leader of the 27th ward.
She is the same person who set up voting machines at Harnwell and Harrison college houses late last night, prior to the designated time. There was no evidence of tampering after those booths were disassembled.
Across campus at David Rittenhouse Laboratory, fears were confirmed that not all registration applications were filed before the deadline.
A few dozen residents of Hill College House said they had submitted registration forms, but never received voter registration cards. When they showed up to vote at DRL, their names were not listed on the rolls. The students instead were instructed to cast their votes using provisional ballots.
Melissa Hauptman, a College freshman, was one such voter. Previously registered in her home state of New York, Hauptman said she went through the trouble to re-register in Pennsylvania because of the state's importance in the election.
But when she arrived at DRL, she was told she could only submit a provisional ballot. Hauptman worried that her vote would not be counted.
"There's no way that they'll find my registration three hours before the [8 p.m.] deadline," Hauptman said, adding that she feared many others were in the same predicament. "I wish I was the only one whose vote won't be counted."
Volunteers stationed at Houston Hall said an initial lack of city staffing complicated the day's procedures.
But, according to Wharton sophomore and polling volunteer Brandon Celestin, "It turned out OK, because the party organizations [at Penn] provided plenty of volunteers."
The voting machines also caused some confusion with student voters.
College sophomore Lindsay Zucker noted that there were "no specific instructions that said that the printed name of the candidate was the actual button" to push in order to vote for that person.
College freshman Sean Sullivan voted at DRL, and like Zucker, had no problems at the registration table, but admitted that he was also slightly puzzled when he first entered the booth.
"It's kind of daunting with all the buttons," Sullivan said. However, he added, "Once you look at it, it's pretty obvious."
Nonetheless, there were many more students who said they had a positive voting experience than there were students who felt negatively about their time at the polls.
For the most part, the registration and sign-in process was reported as being hassle-free. With a PennCard and voter registration card, all that was required of student voters was to provide a signature.
Zucker said that she wanted to vote early to avoid long lines. When she arrived at Harnwell at 11 a.m., there was only one student in front of her waiting to cast a ballot.
"It took all of five minutes," she said.
According to Celestin, the longest lines at Houston Hall occurred around 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. He added, however, that even at the busiest times, the wait was not very long.
He attributed these short lines to the addition of new voting locations on campus. The increased number of locations diffused students as opposed to designating all student voters to DRL, as was the case in the past election.
The multiple locations made "a huge difference," Celestin said. "The wait in DRL would have been detrimental. Many people would have left and not voted."
Several students described their voting experience as "easy." Some exiting the booths even asked poll watchers, "Is that it?"
Celestin -- who dealt with a majority of first-time voters, since his polling location included the Quadrangle and Stouffer College House, residence hubs for freshmen -- described the enthusiasm he saw yesterday.
He said that students high-fived him after they voted, and some even asked him to take their pictures outside of the booth.
