Yesterday, I cast my first ballot as a newly naturalized citizen of the United States.

The past four years have been some of the most challenging of this century. But the country is moving out of these hard times and into a new era. While it will remain a conservative era, Democratic governance — and Obama — will thrive within it.

Voting shouldn’t be an uphill battle. It should be an easy process — one that unites the country and invites everyone to have a say.

With 99 percent reporting, Obama won the popular vote in Pennsylvania by a margin of 5.2 percent — 52.0 percent to Romney’s 46.8. Obama carried the state by 2.5 percent less than he did in 2008.

At on-campus polling locations, 3,697 votes were cast, which does not include the more than 200 votes that were cast provisionally. INTERACTIVE: Penn area voting results WORD ON THE WALK: Who did you vote for? VIDEO: Amy Gutmann at the voting booth

Warren, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Sen. Scott Brown. As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, Warren carried 54 percent of the vote to Brown’s 46 percent, with 95 percent of precincts reporting.

Incumbents Senator Bob Casey and state treasurer Robert McCord clinched their second terms, while Kathleen Kane and Eugene DePasquale won their races for state attorney general and auditor general, respectively. INTERACTIVE: Pennsylvania Election Results

The company, which beta-launched this summer, works with entrepreneurs who have business ideas but not the technical know-how to design and build their products. VenturePact styles itself as a “venture capital firm that invests product development instead of capital.”

Of the five on campus polling locations —Harrison, Harnwell and Hill college houses and Vance and Houston halls — 5 percent of all ballots cast were provisional, according to Executive Director of the Fox Leadership Program Joe Tierney.

Men’s soccer is still winless in the Ivies, but Penn does not need to go back to square one. The squad will still need to solve many of its problems if it wants to become relevant again in the league.

Young receivers have had to step up and Penn has had to adjust its offensive strategy. Instead of having one new receiver emerge, the Quakers have filled in the holes with several new targets.

The Penn women’s soccer squad is nearly 10 months from its next season. But there is reason to believe we caught a glimpse of the future Saturday night in its title bout with Princeton.

Walking on is common in the sport of rowing, which many athletes don’t begin or even have access to before college.

Thursday night, the Student Activities Council elected College junior Jen Chaquette as its new chair. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with Chaquette to discuss her goals for the upcoming year, along with SAC’s newest funding moratorium.

When Hurricane Sandy swept across the East Coast last week, thousands of valuable research mice and rats at New York University’s Langone Medical Center perished as the unprecedented storm surge flooded the basement of the school’s Smilow Research Center.

1999 College graduate Adam Cook’s run for Congress has come to an end.

Your vote will never affect any result. This is simply a given.