Election Notebook

America’s historic presidential election is the subject of classroom and dining hall conversations at Holy Cross today.

Early reports suggest that there was a record turnout among young voters across the country. On Mount St. James, hundreds of students watched Barack Obama win a landslide victory to become the next president on a projection screen in Crossroads in the Hogan Campus Center.

Holy Cross students in the Washington Semester Program were in the heat of the action, in newsrooms and government offices.

Kelly Doherty ’10, interning at OMB Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog organization, began her Election Day at 6 a.m., working at the polls in Arlington, Va., in the Aurora Hills district.

Christopher Hayden ’10, who is also working for “Meet the Press,” didn’t comprehend the magnitude of the evening until 1:30 a.m.

“I was on the set with presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who was speaking with Brian Wiliams,” says Hayden. “Mr. Beschloss remarked that America has fulfilled Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. America judged Barack Obama not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.”

Casey Lee ’10, who is working for MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews ’67, was at the NBC studio throughout the night, monitoring exit polls, conducting research, and poring over wire reports.

Throughout the campaign, Holy Cross students were involved in getting out the vote, most especially the final weeks. A combined total of 776 students registered to vote in voter registration drives that the College hosted this year and last (this number does not include students who registered on their own).

Students at the College were also involved in numerous efforts to increase awareness on and off campus, including phone banking, canvassing, and holding signs at the bottom of College Hill for both presidential candidates. A faculty round-table discussion titled “The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime?” and a student debate just days before the election drew big crowds.

More Election coverage:

• View photo of students reacting to election returns in Crossroads. • Read a short reflection by Kevin Palumberi ’10 who is spending the fall semester in the nation’s capitol as part of the Washington Semester Program. • Read blog entries on the election written by two students studying abroad: Catherine O’Connor (Florence, Italy) and Megan Emmich ’10 (Dublin, Ireland). • Read what professors had to say leading up to the presidential election in local and national media outlets in Holy Cross in the News.

Related Information:

• Alumni Success Story: Chris Matthews ’67

• Worcester News Tonight/NECN (Nov. 5, 2008) Worcester residents react to Obama's victory

• Telegram & Gazette (Nov. 6, 2008) Kindred candidate: Young people united to get Obama elected