{"id":865,"date":"2008-11-05T10:55:07","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masonvotes.gmu.edu\/blog\/?p=865"},"modified":"2008-11-05T18:14:27","modified_gmt":"2008-11-05T23:14:27","slug":"arlington-campus-a-polling-location-at-center-of-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/05\/arlington-campus-a-polling-location-at-center-of-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington Campus a Polling Location at Center of Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Broadside:
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Northern Virginia was at the center of the nation\u2019s electoral process this Tuesday, and Mason\u2019s Arlington campus was right there with it. Mason Arlington\u2019s Original Building was the official polling location of those living in Virginia Square, Arlington\u2019s Precinct #040, and many Arlington residents were exercising their right to vote on Mason\u2019s grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a very strong turnout this morning,\u201d noted Cheryl, the Assistant Election Officer at Precinct #040, who requested that her last name not be printed. \u201cOver 1,100 people had voted in this precinct alone by about lunchtime. We were very excited by the turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the polling place, the atmosphere was upbeat on both sides, despite the rainy weather. Large numbers of volunteers for both the Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin tickets were busily handing out sample ballots and making last-minute pitches for their candidates. The Democratic Party\u2019s volunteers looked cheerful and confident as they encouraged those passing by to vote for Barack Obama. Those advocating for the Republican candidates handed out \u201cJoe\u201d stickers, a reference to John McCain supporter Samuel \u201cJoe\u201d Wurzelbacher, also known as \u201cJoe the Plumber,\u201d McCain\u2019s symbolic representation of an aspiring middle-class American.<\/p>\n

As with polling locations throughout the region and the country, election officials in Arlington expected a large turnout. \u201cWe were expecting the turnout to be substantial, and we think we handled it well,\u201d said Kaye Anne Helmich, the Chief Election Officer for the precinct, and a 1980 graduate of Mason. \u201cWe expected the biggest rush to be in the morning, before work, and we were right. We moved them along quickly though, and processed the lines by 10:00.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the increased number of younger voters in this election, she said it was a byproduct of the increasing population in the county. \u201cWell, younger people have been getting more interested in politics over the past four years, I\u2019d say, since more high-rises have been built in Arlington,\u201d Helmich said. \u201cThe more people that move here, the more young people that seem to become interested in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year Mason Law School student George Parker was more intrigued by the national media\u2019s coverage of an election in Virginia. \u201cI voted in the 2004 election as well,\u201d he stated, \u201cBut this is just so much different. There were two massive news crews reporting from the polling place when I voted. It\u2019s unreal, to see an election possibly decided by Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Helmich summed it up: \u201cI worked the polls in 2004 as well. This election\u2026 you can\u2019t compare this election to 2004. They\u2019re just too different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Broadside: Northern Virginia was at the center of the nation\u2019s electoral process this Tuesday, and Mason\u2019s Arlington campus was right there with it. Mason Arlington\u2019s Original Building was the official polling location of those living in Virginia Square, Arlington\u2019s Precinct #040, and many Arlington residents were exercising their right to vote on Mason\u2019s grounds. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}