The Pullen Community Center precinct was less lively than expected Tuesday, with line wait times shrinking down to about 20-30 minutes after the morning rush and the total number of voters reaching just over 1,800.
Being the polling precinct for mostly those who live on NC State’s campus, Pullen Community Center’s lines were mostly students, many of whom were participating in the first presidential election since they were eligible to vote.
“It was a new experience; it was humbling to know that you can make a change,” said Emanuel Cruz, a sophomore studying nuclear engineering and first time voter. “The whole world is looking at us with our two candidates being who they are.”
One possible reason for the shortness of the lines was the volume of people who took advantage of early voting. More than 45 percent of registered voters in North Carolina voted before Election Day.
“I was expecting the line to be longer,” said Anthony Crutchfield, a freshman studying physics who said he had only been in line for about five minutes. “My friend voted back home and it lasted two hours.”
Early voting in the NC State area was very high according to one of the polling officials. Officials said that the majority of voters voting there on Election Day were just the “procrastinators.”
Some students felt like the outcome of the presidential election was not as important as some other races in the ballot.
“I feel like the presidency is a pretty constrained position,” said Cole Beck, a freshman studying political science. “No matter who wins, I don’t think that it’s going to be as dramatic as people think it’s going to be.”
Other students, like Cruz, felt like the United States was in an unprecedented position with the rise of Donald Trump.
“The whole world is looking at us with our two candidates being who they are,” Cruz said. “With Donald Trump being a big person in the past, being on TV, a lot of the country is looking at him as a joke.”
Lining the sidewalk outside the precinct were volunteers from different organizations talking to voters and handing out candidate information. They ranged from volunteers with the Trump campaign handing out sample ballots and literature about the GOP platform to a person soliciting signatures to allow the Green Party to appear on the ballot.
Robert Mayhew, a professor of art history at Wake Technical Community College, was volunteering for the North Carolina Democratic Party by canvassing and driving people to the polls who could not easily get there on their own.
Mayhew explained why volunteering was so important and how monumental the 2016 election was, specifically from an educator’s perspective.
“I see a lot of students that don’t feel like they’re compelled to vote and I wanted to help make it more possible for them to vote,” Mayhew said. “I don’t have a lot of time, but I had some time and I wanted to help.”
Mayhew also explained why he chose to vote on Election Day instead of voting early.
“Frankly, because I wanted to vote with my kids,” Mayhew said. “They had a delay at school today, so I thought it’d be a good experience for them.”
NC State Student Government was also helping get people to the polls with a busing program they instituted. Student Government arranged for two Wolfline buses to continually transport students from Reynolds Coliseum to the Pullen Community Center on Election Day.
With the election of Donald Trump, students across NC State as well as the entire country had begun their democratic participation during an election that was far from normal.
“As a Latino student going to a university and having heard what [Trump] has said in the past, it’s been really strange having [Trump] actually go to be one of our candidates,” Cruz said. “That’s intense.”
Voters wait in line at the Pullen Park Community Center at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday to vote in the 2016 presidential election.
