Team 5
Sara Isenberg, Taylor Stetzar, Malik Golden
P3 Blog
Wild Election Cycle Sparks Electoral Participation in Centre County
Historically, college students are known for being politically active. The students who attend Penn State are no different, but even non-students in Centre County are also getting involved in the election this year.
Peter Jurs, once a Penn State chemistry professor, has been volunteering at the polls for ten years. This year was his first as election judge in Precinct 116: State College North, a position in which he is legally responsible for the particular polling place. He sets up the booths, oversees voters, and is available to anyone with questions.
“This is a community service. I’m giving back to my town,” Jurs said. Jurs said he gets paid “basically minimum wage” for the job, but that “nobody is in it for the money.”
Jurs said voter turnout is typically “low” during the “odd years”, or the years when there is no presidential election. This year, of course, was different. “In this precinct, we have 815 registered voters…Right now it’s around two in the afternoon, and we’ve had about 450 people vote,” Jurs said. “This is a very heavy turnout which is good–people are participating,” he said.
Jurs speculates that this year’s voter turnout for his precinct could break the records set during the Obama elections. He remains hopeful that everyone who can vote will exercise their right to do so, especially in such an election that presents such high stakes for this nation.
Jurs was determined to be apolitical, but Penn State students are less averse to picking sides when issues they consider pivotal are at stake. Students Rachel Hoellman and Cydney James are NextGen Climate Fellows who hope to inspire other students to vote based on a candidate’s dedication to combating climate change. They present voters with information on candidates’ environmental platforms, even handing out cards with suggested candidates; still, they do not officially endorse a candidate or party.
Sarah Nahrgang, also a Penn State student, is a member of Students for Life. The group supports pro-life policies, and the candidates who propose them. Though they are publicly nonpartisan, Nahrgang was nearly giddy with excitement when she talked about Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s plans to overturn Roe v. Wade and bring a barrage of pro-life men and women into the White House .
However, nobody participating in the electoral process this year was as outwardly political as the two young Trump supporters, Benjamin Hornberger and Cameron Panase. For Hornberger, a registered democrat, his vote for Trump is a vote of resistance, in retaliation to what he sees as Hillary Clinton’s “stealing” the democratic nomination from Bernie Sanders. His other vendetta against Clinton is personal. As a veteran of the Marine Corps, Hornberger says Clinton allowed his “brothers in arms” to die in Benghazi and is deeply angered by her use of the word “deplorable” to describe Trump supporters.
A military veteran sports a shirt representing his candidate for president outside of the Trump campaign headquarters in downtown State College.
Credit: Sara Isenberg
“I got involved because I joined my school’s college Republicans and they really don’t support trump that much so I had to go find a new way to sort of reach out to the community and try to save our country without bringing Hillary Clinton into office.”
At the end of election day, the Trump campaign and its supporters found the victory they were hoping for. Donald Trump exceeded the magic number of 270 electoral votes and became the president-elect in perhaps the most historic election in American history thus far.
Trump’s win could not have been made possible without people across the nation believing in him and lobbying undecided voters for their cause. Though the “record number” of voters expected to the polls turned out to be the lowest turnout America has seen in a presidential election in 20 years, the impact these volunteers made on the 2016 election, and ultimately American history, will surely inspire others to get out and be heard.