On election night in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, BallState students prepared to watch the returns equipped with pizza,drinks and lots of opinions. Two of the main televisions were seton CNN and were full of commentary on election predictions.
"Every station wants to report the results first, so they cansay they reported it first," sophomore Jennie Lee said.
She said they should be careful because last presidentialelection they gave the wrong results. Lee, a Kerry supporter, saidregardless of who wins, the return party was a great way forstudents to get together and find out what was going on in theelection.
Some students were more concerned with if a winner will bedetermined tonight or whether there will be similar to the 2000presidential election.
"It's not like baseball, when you know exactly who's winning,"junior Mike Kostyo said. "The returns are totally random up untilthe end, when all the votes are counted."
The presidential election was not the only concern of students.Ball State Democrats president Jacob Clere checked his laptopperiodically to find out the returns in Indiana's governor'selection while watching CNN's coverage of the presidentialelection.
He said he knew the group, wearing "Democrats are sexy..."shirts, would gather somewhere to watch the returns and decidedthis party was the most convenient. Clere said the return party wasan end to a busy day for the group.
"We spent all day encouraging students to vote and directingthem to their voting precincts," Clere said.
Besides trying to figure out who was winning, senior LizStephan, said the most fun for her was poking fun at her friends.Stephan wore a "My Man Mitch" shirt and traded friendly insultswith her friends who are democrats.
"I feel like I'm in the minority in here, but it doesn'tmatter," Stephan said.
She said her friends have followed the election closely and theparty was a great way for them to get together and have fun withpolitics.
The political science department, in conjunction with FreshmanConnections, sponsored the election return party. As a part of thefall lineup, the group offered incentives for freshmen who attendedthe event. Shouting "Go Bush," freshman Tim Little said he didn'tneed any other motivation to attend the party.
"I just wanted to get with other people to see what's going onand hear what each party had to say when it's all over," Littlesaid.
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