Princeton works to get out the vote

PRINCETON, N.J. - Princeton students couldn't claim to be uninformed yesterday.

Volunteers for PVotes, a non-partisan, get-out-the-vote organization at the university, walked dorm-to-dorm to let students know where and how to vote in the day's New Jersey primary.

"This is a targeted campaign," said Princeton freshman Neha Bansal, as she prepared to knock on a student's dorm door. "We try to hit every voter twice, and we try to be really obnoxious about it."

However, that energy wasn't apparent earlier in the day.

Super Tuesday began as a cool, cloudy and still morning at Princeton, with a silence one could almost mistake for apathy. But that would be a mistake, for Princeton was anything but unwilling to get out and vote.

"Usually, the students are gone during the primary," said Joshua Leinsdorf, a precinct station worker. "But today, [turnout] has been like a landslide election. It's unprecedented."For months, student organizations worked throughout Princeton to ensure that young people would have an impact on the primary. PVotes sought to reach every voter on campus.

Additionally, Princeton Democrats organized a massive database of voter information and sent volunteers to remind students - of both parties - to vote on Tuesday.

Yume Kitasei, a Princeton junior and College Democrats volunteer, said the group worked to clarify voting rules for students, noting that even in the dorms, precinct distinctions are split floor-by-floor.

"There's been a lot of confusion, and we hoped to be able to clear that up," Kitasei said.

At the polling stations, varied interpretations prevailed on voter turnout and how smoothly the process was going.

"The Board of Elections did not expect this high of voter participation," Leinsdorf said. "They forgot to give a write-in option on the sample ballot. They didn't give us enough ballots for Democrats. We've been working extremely hard all day long."

Perhaps as a sign of the precinct's efforts to avoid chaos, an interview was cut short when Leinsdorf was called back into the voting room suddenly to continue numbering ballots.

Some students, however, believed that their peers could have turned out in stronger numbers.

"It was busier earlier, but I would have liked higher turnout," said junior Scott Weingart, the vice president of Princeton Democrats. Weingart was monitoring the election for the campus Democrats, and was marking off the names of students who had voted that day.

The Princeton Republicans, while they did not canvas the campus dorms, did provide volunteers for PVotes efforts.

"That's great that the Democrats did what they did," said junior Andrew Malcolm, president of the College Republicans. "But we'll be out in the general election" getting students to vote, he added.

Though Democrats and Republicans hinted at future competition, both parties worked yesterday to simply get voters to the polls.

Sophomore Mary Marshall, a PVotes volunteer, reported that the group had registered more than 400 new voters from both parties over the past few months and that they "anticipate a lot more" before the general election.

Student voters, whether new or old, seemed to believe that voting was a must this election season.

"It's been interesting to see how many more people are getting involved this year," sophomore Jessica Lee said. "Since I was young, I had always been motivated to vote. It was important."

But for some, the incessant attention on the primaries had begun to strike a nerve.

Following one of Bansal's knocks, a student replied, "Yes - I know there's an election. I've been reminded."

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