Nearly 4,000 vote at on-campus polling stations

Penn led the vote yesterday, with almost 4,000 people voting on campus.

At on-campus polling locations - David Rittenhouse Lab, Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, Harrison College House, Harnwell College House, Houston Hall and the Penn Care and Rehabilitation Center - 3,833 people voted, according to Penn Leads the Vote.

That number is up from 3,218 in the 2004 general election and about 2,500 in April's Pennsylvania primary.

Some students also voted at off-campus locations, such as the Walnut Street library and Woodland Presbyterian Church.

Including several off-campus polling locations, about 7,300 people on and near campus voted yesterday.

More than 90 percent of Penn students registered on campus showed up to vote, according to College senior A.J. Schiera, a PLTV executive board member.

Excitement was high on campus throughout the day.

College sophomore Grant Dubler, who was a poll watcher for PLTV in Harrison said that location was busy all day.

"Every time I think we are going to empty out, one more person walks in," he said yesterday morning.

Julia Miller, a College sophomore and a poll worker in Harrison, said people who were voting seemed excited.

"Our most common question is people asking for an 'I voted' sticker, so that's pretty cool," she said.

At DRL, minority inspector Dave Parrott, who also worked at that polling station in 2004, said, "It's more people than I've ever seen before."

Judge of elections Daniel Flaumenhaft, who was also at DRL, said the busiest time at the polls was early in the morning.

In the first hour, there were "well over 100" voters, Flaumenhaft said.

PLTV executive board member and College senior Stephanie Simon said she "thought the day went really well" and was "very happy with turnout."

"I just think everyone on campus worked really hard this year," she said. "You could tell how much passion there was."

Penn President Amy Gutmann also praised students' involvement in the election.

"I'm proud that we have said that civic engagement is in the DNA of Penn and Penn students are proving for that to be even more so," she said.

Gutmann said that before she voted, she addressed an Introduction to American Politics class and PLTV volunteers on College Green.

When she asked them if they had voted, they all said yes.

"It was just a very excellent affirmation of how our education is involved with civic affairs," Gutmann said.

"We have not had that kind of civic engagement among the college-going population, so I'm really proud that Penn students are leading," she said.

Staff writers Julia Harte, Rachel Baye and Alyssa Schwenk contributed reporting to this article.

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