I woke up at 5 a.m., determined to be the first person to cast a ballot. This, along with the striking silence of campus at that hour, were the two main thoughts that occupied my walk to my polling location, Houston Hall.
Sure enough, I did not find a single person in line to vote. The polls opened soon enough, however, and it was a powerful feeling when I pressed the big green “vote” button. If the polls had closed at 7:01 this morning, I would have cast the sole ballot at Houston.
Soon, the trickle of first-time voters began to increase as ballot after ballot was submitted.
“There are a lot of very vitriolic opinions going back and forth ... People are getting really competitive with each other, and I think it’s important that no matter how you feel, you participate in the process,” College sophomore Joe Sileo said.
Other students who rose early agreed.
“The energy today, I can already feel, is palpable on campus,” said College freshman Mackenzie Morrison, who was voting for the first time in a presidential election. “Today is probably one of the most historic elections we will ever be alive for. It’s very exciting, and I wanted to come at the beginning of things.”
“Vote early, vote often ... I’m just kidding! ... Make sure you get out and vote,” President of Penn Democrats and College junior Jana Korn joked. “If you think you’re too busy because of some midterm or some project, the country can’t just wait around for you.”
The afternoon was relatively uneventful, until the voting closed and viewing events began. After watching a parade of Penn Democrats, I returned to the polls where I had begun my day to collect the final polling statistics for Houston Hall for the Daily Pennsylvanian. The results showed a clear win for Clinton among Penn students who voted there.
At the end of the day, I returned to Rodney Hall in Ware House to watch the poll results come in while the Penn Republicans and Penn Democrats held their respective watch parties. The results of the election stunned most of campus. Some students were crying in my hall as they watched the election results finish, while other students on campus were in a state of shock.
“I feel worried. I feel surprised. But I also feel like I had made assumptions that Clinton was going to win ... just given the polling. I think I’m ... really sad about the assumptions I’ve made,” Wharton and Engineering freshman Alex LiChen said, around 11 p.m. Tuesday night.
Although I have only witnessed a few elections, the election of 2016 has no doubt been exceptional. Now the question on everyone’s mind is, what happens next?
The country is clearly divided, and half the country celebrates a stunning victory while the other is in a state of disbelief. Questions regarding why forecasts were so off remain. Tonight, no one seems to have an answer.
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