"Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half."

Today's quote comes from Gore Vidal, an American novelist and politician (among many other things) who wrote The City and the Pillar, the first American novel to contain an open representation of homosexuality. He is connected to many well-known political names; his mother married the man who would later become Jackie Kennedy's stepfather, he was the fifth cousin of Jimmy Carter and distantly related to Al Gore, his grandfather was a senator from Oklahoma. He himself became a political activist in the 1960s and had an unsuccessful bid for Congress in New York. He would later run for a senate position in California, another unsuccessful attempt.







On this historic election day, I would’ve expected much more excitement and debate across campus. I wanted to see rallies and students debating (albeit peacefully) and a huge surge of pride as we go into this election.

Instead, it has been relatively quiet. I’m seeing new signs on campus, but not much more than that. I’m concerned that students on my campus just don’t care enough, or don’t want to be bothered with voting. Perhaps many of them voted absentee and there’s no need to get their metaphorical panties in a twist, but I was at least hoping for a little more. Maybe by tonight when polls start to close and the projections are made I’ll start to hear students buzzing about the election.

4 years ago during the last presidential election I was a college student. I went to school at a small private college, but one that had extremely liberal leanings. I was an RA and encouraged all of my residents to vote. I sent in my absentee ballot with plenty of time to spare and parked myself on my bed that evening and watched CNN all night long. I fell asleep with the TV and woke up randomly in the middle of the night to see that predictions were very different from when I had last remembered. I could barely concentrate the next day and all I wanted to do was watch what was going on.

This election will fare no differently. I’ve been told about many different election parties that are going on around campus but I think I’ll be spending this evening alone. I think it’s fun to sit by myself in my pajamas and watch everything…..sometimes I’ll laugh, sometimes I’ll yell at the TV, but the best part is that I don’t have to deal with anyone else getting all uppity about their candidate over mine.

And speaking of that, for whatever reason my staff is very curious about who I was planning on voting for. I’ve refused to tell them and I think it’s only made them more curious and want to ask me even more. I know some people have been very open about where their support falls, but I felt that it was in my best interest to just keep my mouth shut. I’m aware that I have a variety of political leanings on my staff and I’d rather not rock the boat one way or another. Maybe I’ll tell them after everything has been officially decided, or maybe I’ll just let them keep wondering.

My civic duty has officially been completed. I allotted myself about 2 hours of time for the voting process in case lines were long, but I was able to walk right in and cast my vote. This was the first time that I’ve actually voted on election day – I’ve always voted absentee in my hometown – and it was very cool to get to touch screen my vote into history. Plus, I got a sticker! And that’s really what made it all worth it :)