Latest from the New Voters Project

We posted updates all day on Election Day from campuses about voter turnout and other election news. See our Election Day reports below.

Some last-minute updates from the field. Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) efforts came in many shapes and sizes:

At Smith College, the Student Government Association and MASSPIRG planned shuttles to the polls which ran all day. An estimated 200 students used the vans to get to the polls.

At Colorado State University, a "flashmob" of 25 students spontaneously spelled out the word VOTE with their bodies in the center of the Plaza during the biggest class change on campus. After the polls had closed, CSU students hosted a "Party after the Polls" at a local restaurant to watch the election results, complete with door prizes and a balloon drop.  A hundred students lined up to get in before the doors opened at 6 pm, and they were full to capacity before 8 pm!

At UCLA volunteers wore ninja, pirate, Batman, and Superman costumes and fought on the main quad while wearing Obama and Mccain masks.

At Temple University, volunteers set up tables where they stopped students and asked them to text message their friends with a GOTV reminder. Students sent over 25,000 texts during the course of the day.

At Los Angeles Valley College, a commuter school, CALPIRG volunteers had a table set up in front of the campus center on Election Day with laptops so that students could look up their polling places.

Students at CU Denver coordinated a GOTV event with 11 different organizations, including: CoPIRG, Hip Hop Congress, three student government organizations, Students for Obama, Students for McCain, and four GOTV nonprofits (in addition to the assistance of all three student life offices from local universities). To recruit students to send text message reminders to their friends, they "sold" pizza for five GOTV text messages per slice, and "sold" t-shirts for 10 GOTV texts per shirt. They also had students box in a giant inflatable boxing ring wearing McCain and Obama masks, and had four different media outlets come out to capture footage. At one point the entire Metro State Women’s Softball team was boxing in the ring!

At UMass Dartmouth, students decorated a window of the campus center with pictures of student groups holding "we pledge to vote" signs. Another window was decorated with the lyrics to the song "This Is Why I'm Hot," rewritten by a student to instead say, "This Is Why I Vote." Volunteers also made yellow cards that said "This is Why I Vote" and asked students to fill them out. After they were filled out, the cards were placed all over the window. They collected nearly 300 names of people who told them why they were voting and pledged to vote on Election Day.

With polls closing on the east coast, a lot is still happening on campuses around the country:

Ongoing problems at the polling place at the University of South Florida drew out the Hillsborough County supervisor of elections, who showed up at the Marshall Student Center with more voting material. Since then, the line is moving twice as fast. Also, Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham showed up to ease the frustration of waiting in line. He walked around, having conversations with people in line and signing autographs.

At The Ohio State University polling location at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, pollworkers are reporting that 546 people have voted so far, compared to only 7 people who voted there in 2004! In addition, at Precinct 39-B 1041 students had voted by 1 p.m., compared to only 622 who voted in 2004.

At one close-to-campus precinct near Salem State College in Massachusetts, as of 7 p.m. 1200 people had voted, out of 1400 registered voters.

At one University of Maryland polling place,1440 students had voted as of 6 p.m., almost twice as many as in 2004.

Out west, where the polls are still open, students at Arizona State University - Tempe are facing a 90 minute wait at one poll. Volunteers have been passing out copies of The New York Times and have been having conversations with people waiting in line to help them pass the time.

At CU Boulder, Precinct #102, 607 students voted early.  In contrast, 668 people total had voted for all of 2004.

Temple University students are now waiting up to four hours to vote at the 12th and Susquehanna polling location in Philadelphia, which serves three of the biggest dormitories on campus. This is just the latest voting problem that Temple students have faced today - this morning students reported that voting machines were broken at the 15th and Gerard polling place.

To help students pass the time, the Temple Student Government brought in a DJ who will stay until the polls close. When it rained on the long line of voters, PennPIRG students handed out umbrellas and ponchos.

At UMass Dartmouth, where turnout today had crushed 2004 turnout by 3 p.m., students who didn't appear on the voter rolls were being denied the right to vote through a provisional ballot. MASSPIRG organizers stepped in to work with the registrar's office as well as the administration at UMass Dartmouth to get the situation resolved. As a result, pollworkers began to offer provisional ballots.

At North Carolina State University, the official judge for precinct 23, located at the Pullen Art Center, is predicting 80% turnout for that precinct.

Long lines continue to plague the campus polling place at University of South Florida. The elections office responded this afternoon by bringing in six more voting machines, but didn't provide additional poll workers to staff the location, so nothing changed - students are still waiting in lines for 3 to 3.5 hours.

Jeff Howell, a MoPIRG intern participating in student get out the vote activities at the campus polling place today, received a text message at around 2 p.m. The text message encouraged Obama supporters to leave the polls due to long lines, and instead to show up on Wednesday.

Voter suppression affects everyone, but in particular young voters and minorities. National youth leaders are calling on the media to set the record straight: voting ends today. Any text messages, emails, phone calls, or flyers that say otherwise are only intended to suppress votes. It is our civic responsibility to make sure every vote counts.

Our album of Election Day photos is growing. We'll be adding to it throughout the day, featuring photos of long lines at the polls and other highlights. Check it out here.

Stories coming in from our campuses around the country show that students are turning out in big numbers:

As of 3 p.m., both polling places at the University of Maryland had surpassed the turnout numbers from 2004. The wait to vote is close to two hours long.

A pollworker at the polling place near St. Louis Community College - Meramec in Missouri told us that she's been a pollworker for 20 years and has never seen turnout like this.

At Iowa State University, one of the nearby student-dense precincts had 311 ballots cast as of 12 noon. In contrast, 430 people cast ballots in all of 2004.

At the University of Arizona, pollworkers report that this is the first year there has ever been a line to vote.

ASU precinct #3 is still seeing lots of provisional ballots cast due to Arizona's ID laws - 48 provisional ballots have been cast out of 144 total ballots so far today.

At the University of Connecticut Storrs, ConnPIRG volunteers report a wait time of 3 hours. Pollworkers are having students make a separate line from non-students. While the student line is moving at the 3 hour pace, the non-student line has only a 30 minute wait.

At Cincinnati University, student Patrick Mcconville got his voter registration card from the election board. The card told him to vote at the 12-H St Monica Parish poll. When he came to vote, however, he wasn't on the rolls. Rather than taking the time to figure out why, or figure out if he is in another precinct but got the wrong card, pollworkers made him vote provisionally.

This morning, we reported that pollworkers at the University of Southern Florida precincts were refusing to allow properly registered voters who needed to change their address to cast a regular ballot. Florida PIRG organizers contacted Election Protection, who were able to resolve the problem quickly.

At Rutgers, the quick footwork of NJPIRG organizers helped one Rutgers student cast a ballot. This morning, the student wrote us an email, saying that pollworkers could not find her on the rolls, even though she was confident she was properly registered. NJPIRG organizers quickly contacted the county board of elections, confirmed the student's registration, and got instructions from the elections director to tell the student to go back and vote again. This time it worked, and another ballot was successfully cast.

In Arizona, restrictive registration and ID requirements flagged by the Student PIRGs in 2006 are already taking their toll on students' right to have their vote counted. State law requires the address on the voter rolls to match the student's driver's license. Students who have different addresses for each must produce two utility bills with the same address on the voter rolls or one utility bill and a special voter ID card. All of these requirements are unrealistic given students' high mobility.  At one precinct near the Arizona State University-Tempe, 27 of the 80 students who cast ballots this morning we’re required to cast a provisional ballot.

Our network of pollwatchers have been checking in with pollworkers regularly to monitor turnout and flag problems.  Here are a few more reports:

At a poll near Salem State College in Massachusetts, nearly four times as many people have voted today as had voted at that polling place at the same time of day in 2004.

At UMass Dartmouth's local polling place, 425 people had voted by noon, setting them on pace to easily surpass the number (865) who had voted at that same poll in 2004.

Pollworkers at Rutgers Newark estimate that turnout today is double what it was in 2004.

Pollworkers at the University of South Florida precinct report that turnout is "not even comparable to 2004 - this year there's a line, last time it was a trickle."

Pollworkers at Temple University report that turnout has far surpassed the 2004 experience. Voters have had to wait up to two hours to vote.

Pollworkers at UW Green Bay say that turnout as of 10 a.m. was double the 10 a.m. turnout in 2004.

Pollworkers at UC Berkeley report that turnout at one polling place is already five times that of the primary elections.

A set of legal problems have cropped up at the polls this morning.

By 7:45 this morning in Cincinnati, Ohio, four students were mistakenly turned away at the polls by pollworkers who incorrectly told them they were at the wrong polling place. Ohio PIRG organizers confirmed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections that the students had indeed arrived at the proper polling place. It is unclear if those four students were eventually able to vote.

Florida law allows registered voters to change their registration address at any polling place in the state, so long as they complete a change of address form. As of this morning, however, pollworkers near the University of South Florida have mistakenly told students they may not vote if they are registered outside of Tampa. Florida PIRG organizers have contacted Election Protection, who has dispatched their legal council to remedy the problem.

In District 41-D in the student heavy district of Columbus, Ohio, Ohio PIRG organizers report that pollworkers are telling students to complete provisional ballots without providing a reason why. In addition, we have at least one report of pollworkers telling students who arrived at the wrong polling place to complete a provisional ballot, instead of directing them to the correct polling site. This has affected at least 20 students to date. One Ohio State University student reported having been told to complete a provisional ballot, even though she correctly re-registered at her new address before the registration deadline.

Long lines continue to appear at campus polling places.

Hundreds of Ohio State University students were lined up at the polls starting at 6:30 am. Ohio PIRG volunteers kept people entertained with doughnuts and coloring books while they waited.

Temple University students in Pennsylvania faced early morning lines up to two hours long.

At Arizona State University, one precinct is reporting a one hour wait to vote.

The University of South Florida continues to face serious problems, with wait times of three to three and a half hours at one polling place.

As of 10 am eastern time this morning, a number of campuses were seeing long lines at the polls:

Students at Indiana University lined up at 7 a.m. at their local polling place, with many waiting between an hour and an hour and 20 minutes to vote.

In Ohio, students at Oberlin College waited 60-90 minutes at two local polling places.

At the University of South Florida, lines were up to 2 hours long.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, students were waiting an hour in line to vote on campus.

Turnout is already looking high at some polling places:

At the polling place on the Busch campus of Rutgers University, pollworkers reported that 250 students had already voted by early this morning. In 2004, only 400 people voted at that polling place all day.

We have an album of Election Day photos that we'll be adding to throughout the day, featuring photos of long lines at the polls and other highlights. Check it out here.

Here are the places to go if you need basic voting info.

Find Your Polling Place - vote411.org

What ID to Bring When You Vote - vote411.org

Report Voting Problems - 866ourvote.org or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE

At the Presidential Youth Debate, Senators McCain and Obama have posted video answers to 14 questions submitted by young voters. Thanks to all of you who submitted questions earlier this month!

Go see their answers at http://debate.waldenu.edu.

Prompted by recent controversy in Virginia and evidence of unnecessary barriers to student voters in numerous states across the country, the House Administration Committee held a hearing - Ensuring the Rights of College Students to Vote - to document barriers to student voters that exist across the country and ways to remove these hurdles. Students from the Maryland PIRG chapter, clad in bright yellow "Studentvote.org" t-shirts showed up in force, and New Voters Project Program Director Sujatha Jahagirdar outlined a series of barriers faced by students for committee members. Additional witnesses included Marvin Kristov, President of Oberlin University, Catherine McLaughlin, Executive Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics, Matthew Segal from the student voting group SAVE, and local officials from Virginia and Wisconsin.

In the days leading up to the hearing, students submitted questions for the witnesses on the New Voters Project MySpace page. Chairman Bob Brady (PA) picked the question - "Shouldn't colleges and universities have more than a "good faith effort" to further civic engagement on their campuses? Do the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 demand enough from our schools? Has this been effective since the 10 years it was passed?" - to ask the panel of higher education and local officials. The question was submitted by Nelson Chen, a CALPIRG student at the University of Southern California.

NOW on PBS ran a story, "New Voters in the New West," looking at voter outreach taking place in the western states. The story features New Mexico PIRG student leader Katryn Fraher and highlights the "Vote Boat" at UNM. Watch the story here.

A new story by CNN highlighted efforts to turn out the youth vote. They featured voter mobilization efforts at The Ohio State University, including video footage of the work done by Ohio PIRG's New Voters Project and the OSU Votes coaliton. See the story here.

Senators McCain and Obama have agreed to answer 14 questions submitted and chosen by young Americans as part of the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate.

Submit your question today at http://www.debate.waldenu.edu.

You need to act quickly - the deadline for submitting questions is Monday at 3 p.m. eastern time.

Then go back to the site starting on Tuesday to help choose the questions you think should be asked. The candidates' video responses to the final questions will air online on October 20th.

We were out in force at both conventions to talk about the importance of the youth vote. In Denver, CALPIRG student board member Sarah Dobjensky was featured on the Democratic National Convention's Youth Vote Panel. The UCLA junior and CALPIRG New Voters Project leader highlighted the importance of young voter engagement this election cycle, alongside a host of national youth vote leaders.

At the RNC, Maryland PIRG chair Lauren Kim addressed a crowd of 150 young Republicans, youth vote leaders, and Junior Statesmen at the Young Republican-PIRG New Voters Project luncheon. The Hard Rock Cafe luncheon, which spotlighted the importance of the youth vote in 2008, also featured guest speakers Governor Mike Huckabee, Senator George Voinovich and Young Republican Chair Jessica Colon and was featured on the New York Times Caucus blog.

Musician Francesca Battistelli is making a point to encourage young people to register to vote. She's got a great new song, "It's Your Life," that speaks to the issue.

Listen to it here.

On July 24th, New Mexico PIRG, represented by the Brennan Center, filed suit on behalf of New Mexico PIRG, the Southwest Organizing Project and the American Association of People with Disabilities, challenging the state's unconstitutional voter registration law. The law requires voter registration groups in New Mexico to meet one of the shortest deadlines in the country - 48 hours -  for the return of completed forms, and imposes hefty civil and criminal penalties, including fines and even jail time, if voter registration volunteers and employees do not adhere to restrictive and cumbersome rules for signing up new voters.

As Katryn Fraher, a senior at UNM and leader with New Mexico PIRG, described to the Associated Press, the law significantly reduced the number of students willing to volunteer in New Mexico PIRG’s 2006 UNM campus voter registration drive and presented a real challenge to our efforts to register young voters there in 2006.

Iowa PIRG launched a statewide student voter registration drive today with a goal of ensuring 80 percent turnout on target campuses across the state. Iowa Secretary of State Michael A. Mauro joined us for the kick off, which was covered by the Ames Tribune and local TV and radio. In the next few weeks, the Student PIRGs will launch similar drives on campuses in 24 states.

Our Program Director, Sujatha Jahagirdar, was quoted in today's New York Times story, "Voter Registration by Students Raises Cloud of Consequences." The debate in Virginia was sparked by local voter registration policies that discourage students from registering at their college address. Read the story at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/education/08students.html.

We just wrapped up a week of training in Boston where we trained over 100 campus organizers. They're now headed to colleges around the country, where they'll be recruiting and organizing over 10,000 volunteers to get out the vote. See you on campus soon!

An op-ed published in the New York Times today highlights the growing importance of texting technology in voter mobilization operations. The op-ed references the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project's report on the effectiveness of text messaging.

Our report, released jointly with CREDO Mobile and researchers at Princeton and the University of Michigan, found that election eve text message reminders can increase young voter turnout by approximately 4 percent. Read the report here.

CampusVoices.org, a new project from Harvard's Institute of Politics, is one of the first websites to use our new voter registration widget. Campus Voices is a nationwide project to show the 2008 election through the eyes of students. Check it out.

You can get our widget for your website here.