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6A ELECTION 2008 DEMOCRATS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
THE UNIVERSITY HARLY KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5. 2008
polls and vote counts. The crowd stood up in unanimous praise whenever CNN anchorman Wolf Blitzer called a state in its candidate's favor.
Allison Richardson/KANSAN
The intensity of those celebrations never came close to the outburst that followed Blitzer's announcement that Obama had won Colorado, picking up the final electoral votes that would send him to the White House.
George Dungan, Lincoln, Neb. junior, grabs ahold of a friend after the final results of the election were announced at the Democratic watch party Abe & Jake's Landing on Tuesday night. Dungan, the communications director of Young Democrats, had been at the party since 7 that evening to hear the final results.
Andrew Toth, president of KU Young Democrats, said he was confident from the start that his candidate would pull out a decisive victory.
"We worked so hard that we think he deserved to win," he said, exhausted from six weeks of campaigning.
Toth said his organization set up tables, handed out fliers and traveled door-to-door, registering every potential student voter they could find.
"It proves that younger people aren't as apathetic about politics as everyone thinks," Burrows said.
Burrows said her organization and the Student Legislative Awareness Board worked together to register more than 3,000 student voters on campus.
Students flocked to the 67 voting stations scattered around Lawrence Tuesday to vote for the candidate they believed would best govern
their country. Many students, such as Kristen Sheahen, Chicago senior, voted for the first time.
She said she wasn't sure who shed vote for moments before she entered the voting booth. She said she was apprehensive about voting for Obama because she didn't want him to raise her father's taxes.
"My family's business has been in business for 100 years and now they're going to get taxed even more while struggling to work through an economy that isn't doing well," she said. "People are going to have to get laid off if large companies have to cut back on costs to afford higher taxes."
Max McGraw, Shawnee sophomore, said he voted for Obama mainly because of his economic policy.
"The money has to come from somewhere," he said. "Someone will have to make a sacrifice, especially the corporate giants making enormous amounts of money." They can afford to give a little more."
he is the first person of color to be elected president."
Jonathan Earle, associate professor of political history and an Obama supporter, said change over continuity was the dominant theme this election.
Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute of Politics and McCain supporter, described Obama as a "tough, intelligent, cool cat," who "will undoubtedly serve with the best intentions for this country"
He described McCain's loss as "extraordinarily healthy" for the Republican Party, which he said "has lost its way and is being punished by the electorate — deservingly."
"It basically reminds us that we haven't done what we said we would do, and we need to look to
The underlying challenge Obama now faces, Lacy said, is governing in a pragmatic fashion without pushing too far to the left.
new leaders to do the job. we ask." Lacy said.
"Clearly, conservatives are disappointed with what's going on, but we still live in a right-center nation," Lacy said. "I think Obama will govern like he ran his campaign. The question is: Will he push too far to the left too fast?"
Edited by Brieun Scott
they not only elected Obama the nation's 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and come January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.
OBAMA (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Obama's election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years.
In his first speech as victor, to thousands at Grant Park in his home town of Chicago, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. "The greatest of a lifetime," he said, "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."
He added, "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."
McCain called his former rival to concede defeat — and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona.
President Bush added his congratulations from the White House, where his tenure runs out
"May God bless whoever wins tonight," he had told dinner guests earlier.
on Jan. 20.
Obama, in his speech, invoked the words of Lincoln and echoed John E. Kennedy.
Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.
"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of our resolutes to pitch in and work harder," he said.
He and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.
Mike Conner, Shawnee graduate student, and Jack Connor, Overland Park, senior, enjoy themselves at the Republican Party election watch at the Teopa caplio Plaza Hotel. Conner and Conner said that they knew Sen. John McCain would lose his 2008 presidential bid, but came to show support to the party and watch coverage of local elections.
There, Obama's audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn't gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.
The popular vote was close — 51.3 percent to 47.5 percent with 73 percent of all U.S. precincts counted — but not the count in the Electoral College, where it mattered most.
Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.
Disappointment sets in for Republican supporters
Chance Dibbens/KANSAN
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, delivers remarks during an election night rally in Phoenix Tuesday. Joining him on stage are from right, wife Cindy McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, and her husband Todd
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com
Jack Connor and Mike Conner entered the Topeka Capitol Plaza Hotel on Tuesday night and immediately headed for the bar.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Connor and Conner each ordered a Mondo-sized Boulevard Wheat beer before proceeding to the room where the Kansas Republican Party's election watch was being held. They knew those beers wouldn't be the last alcoholic beverages they would order that evening.
"I think we're going to lose badly," said Conner, Shawnee graduate student, of Sen. John McCain's odds of becoming the next president of the United States.
When the party began at 7 p.m., hundreds of people filled the room, but by 9.30 p.m., almost an hour before McCain (R-Ariz.) would concede victory to Obama, fewer than 50 people remained. Republicans knew the party was over.
By 9 p.m., Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) was leading with 220 projected electoral votes to McCain's 138. McCain was losing in Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and all the other states that were leaning toward Obama and that were critical to McCain's chances of winning the presidency.
In his concession speech, McCain commended Obama for his ability to increase voter turnout and give people hope. He also recognized the significance of Obama's election for African-Americans in the United States.
"Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and this country, and I applaud him for it," McCain said.
Conner said he thought McCain handled the situation well by recognizing Obama as the winner before every vote was tallied and not raising the possibility of voter fraud or other legalities that had the potential to change the outcome of the election.
"I thought it was very gracious," Conner said of McCain's speech. "He recognized that the American people called for Barack Obama."
The pair traveled to Minneapolis
for the 2008 Republican National Convention at the beginning of this semester to see McCain accept the nomination for president on behalf of his party. So, for them, McCain's loss was especially disheartening.
The two students won credentials to the convention as part
of a Kansas College Republicans initiative that asked members to canvass Facebook for McCain.
But Conner said he was not surprised or even disappointed in the outcome of the evening. He said he still considered the night a victory for Kansas Republicans because Republican candidate
Lynn Jenkins was selected to replace Democratic incumbent Nancy Boyda in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"This is what I expected, so I'm not upset," he said.
Connor was a bit more pessimistic about the outcome of the election, although he said he
too hard known for several weeks McCain would likely lose.
"I'm disappointed, but I think McCain's going to keep up the good fight," he said. "In a couple of years they'll see what the country thinks of this new leadership."
— Edited by Scott R. Toland
Lawrence area sees only slight increase in number of votes cast
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
Though nearly 18,000 more voters registered in Douglas County in 2008 compared to 2004, only about 270 more votes were cast.
Some thought youth would go to the voting center in droves, but statistics have not yet been released about the voting habits of specific age groups for Douglas County.
Don Haider-Markel, professor of political science, said everything he had seen before election night had overestimated youth voter turnout.
Haider-Markel said this election would not capture youth voting accurately because volunteers couldn't reach voters on their cell phones. However, when Obama's campaign asked supporters to sign up to receive text messages, the response was overwhelming. Haider-Markel said that when students could wake up on Election Day with a text reminding them to vote, it brought politics to the youth generation.
"Part of the reason why we won't see a difference will be because voter turnout overall will outweigh that of specifically youth voter turnout," he said.
"It's great that the Obama campaign had texting efforts to get the youth involved," Haider-Markel said. "It has greatly changed the dynamics."
In 2004, 65,181 people registered to vote, according to the Douglas County clerk's office. Of that number, 51,302 ballots were cast, for a 78.71 percent turnout.
The clerk's office has no way to differentiate student voters from community voters.
Among the 67 precincts in Lawrence, the Burge Union on campus served as a polling location for many students in this election.
Cherae Clark, Kansas City, Kan. freshman, was among students to cast her vote at the Burge Union. She said she voted for Obama because of his stance on gay rights, the issue that matters most to her.
Clark, now 18, has been an open lesbian for four years and said Obama's overall acknowledgement
Shane Heslet,
Rossville freshman, registered as a Democrat and sent in his absentee ballot earlier this week.
of gay rights persuaded her to vote for him.
Poll workers at Central United Methodist Church, 1501 Massachusetts St., said overall, 90 percent of voters by 5 p.m. Tuesday were students. The church was one of the main locations for students who live in the student ghetto to vote.
"Part of the reason why we won't see a difference will be because voter turnout overall will outweigh that of specifically youth voter turnout."
Only four students arrived wearing political shirts and were asked by polling staff members to turn their shirts inside out before voting. The students made no objections.
Heslet said his vote went to Obama because of the message of hope and change.
Heslet said
"America has been looking for this change for the last eight years and for one shining figure," he said. "Obama is the face of change where American politics are goin."
Tom Gleason of the Douglas County Democrats had been at
DON HAIDER-MARKEL Professor of political science
Heslet said coming from a small community of Republicans, he based his values off his immediate liberal family.
"My grandma is a huge McCain fan, though," Heslet said with a smile. "We are both really into politics."
the church from 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning to observe
He said he
"I've been anxious to see how the younger vote turnout has been because of all the speculation," Gleason said.
he said he was just happy to see young people take part.
Gleason said students not only cared because of their future careers but also because of health care and things as simple as potholes.
"The youth realize they have to get in there and vote for what they want to work," he said.
Paul Johnson, professor of political science, said he would guess that the youth voter turnout would slightly increase but not drastically. Johnson said he doubted early voting would have much of an effect
Johnson said from his experience in teaching political science classes that it was always easier for students to talk about voting versus actually voting.
At the Checkers grocery store, which doubled as a polling location, Heather Dorssom, Olathe senior, said her vote went to Obama because of the pertinent issues in relation to health care.
on college students.
"That takes an initiative and planning," he said. "I don't expect young people to be influenced by early voting."
Megan, a Leavenworth freshman who didn't want her last name to be used, said her vote went to McCain.
"People vote because it's a little fun and a little interesting that outweighs the inconvenience of it," Johnson said.
"I just consider Obama slightly sketch," she said.
She said because McCain had a better plan for the Iraq War, she would drive to Leavenworth to vote for McCain.
Dorssom, who will be getting married in March, said issues such as having kids became a deciding factor when choosing a president.
She said she thought the youth turnout would increase because of the historical markers of this election, which included race and gender.
"This will affect the rest of our lives," Dorssom said. "It's a chance to make history."
Edited by Lauren Keith
"I feel really strongly about the Democratic party and believe Obama is the right choice for the nation now."
JARED KELLY Falmouth, Mass., freshman
"see myself as a big conservative, and I don't want to see the country turn to socialism."
KAITLYN ADAMS Kansas City, Mo., freshman
GRANT BUCKINGHAM Santa Monica, Calif., senior
"I think Barack Obama has more solid ideas that are more coherent than McCain's. The youth is tired of the government in its current state and recently have taken notice of
what's been going on around us."
ANDREW FORREST Topeka senior
"I voted for Obama because he's all for the middle class. I'm not obsessively involved with politics, but I've never seen this many youth involved. It's not just a school thing — it's people taking the importance
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of the issues in mind."