Wrong Precinct Does Not Stop Obama Supporter

With 20 minutes left until her first class, Emily Brown rushed out of her Main Street apartment on Nov. 4 with one arm in her jacket, her breakfast still in her hand, and her book bag half unzipped.

“I wanted to wake up early this morning but I hit the snooze button a few too many times,” she said. Brown has class from 11 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. and wanted to vote before her day began.

“My professor said that it would be OK if we were a little late because we were voting,” Brown said, “but I wanted to get there early enough so if I did get stuck in a line I wouldn’t miss the entire class.”

Brown had two exams later in the week and was afraid that if she went to vote after her last class she would get held up in line and wouldn’t get any studying done that evening.

Brown backed Barack Obama but was unsure whether he would win. “I know it is definitely possible for him to win the States,” she said on election day, “but the electoral votes are what worry me.”

One of Brown’s three roommates is from New Jersey, and mailed out her absentee ballot in support of Obama a week earlier. Another roommate strongly supported John McCain.

“I never worried about voting, and I honestly I never planned on voting this year but something about this election caught my attention,” Brown said. She said she had never been interested in politics but with a roommate who has an extreme liking for politics, it was hard not to become involved.

“My roommate is a strong supporter of McCain and has been talking about him for months,” Brown said. “And I didn’t like any of his views on the issues so I decided to do some research on the two candidates.” Brown said she knew almost instantly that Obama was her candidate.

Brown arrived at the Bloomsburg Town Hall around 11 a.m. on election day only to find out that she was at the wrong voting location. “There were people all around campus and even down town providing information on where to vote but I never asked them. I thought that I knew where I was voting but apparently I thought wrong the entire time,” Brown said.

After finding out she was in the wrong place “a very nice Republican state representative running for re-election offered to drive me to the correct location,” she said. “He knew that I was voting for Obama but still offered to drive me to the Magee Center.”

Brown voted Democratic on the entire ballot ,,, with one exception.

“I voted for the re-election of the extremely nice Republican state representative that drove me to the correct center,” she said.