Long after the results were announced, students still occupied seats in the Braiden Hall common room to discuss the results of the 2012 election.
“I’m pretty pumped over the results,” said junior history major Jesse Hall. “Especially since this is my first presidential election.”
Hall attended a watch party at Braiden that was sponsored by GUIDE (Gaining Understanding Through Involvement, Diversity and Education).
Hall voted for President Obama and said that he supported the president for not only his social policies — such as funding higher education and women’s rights — but also for his economic ones.
“We need to focus on small business, using our own domestic oil and increasing exports,” he said.
Lauren Klamm, a junior journalism and technical communications major who voted for Romney, had a different reaction.
“I’m a little heartbroken,” she said, “but I’m looking forward to seeing what (Obama will) do in the next four years.”
While the Romney supporters were upset but optimistic, the Obama fans were celebratory while still being cautious.
“His first term didn’t go as well as expected,” said Nigel Mills, a junior journalism major who also voted for the president. “I hope that he has more freedom and takes more risks since it’s his second term and he can’t be reelected.”
Mills was also a firm supporter of Obama’s social policies, especially when it came to the issue of funding for Planned Parenthood.
“The government shouldn’t be able to control what you do in the bedroom,” he said. “But, with Obama’s plan it will prevent people from becoming parents who shouldn’t be parents.”
Mills attributed Obama’s success to his ability to relate to the common man.
“People want someone in charge that they can relate to,” he said. “When Romney said he wanted to run the country as a business, it made him not as personable.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Romney’s supporters were accepting defeat gracefully.
“Anyone who can help the U.S. gets my vote,” said sophomore business major Nicholas Personett.
Personett hopes the Obama will change his approach to fixing the economy, hopefully even borrowing aspects from Romney’s plan, which Personett felt was the better of two.
“He needs to cut the debt because it’s only getting worse,” Personett said.
Klamm agreed with Personett that the president needed to change his economic policies.
“We need take charge of how China’s trading with other countries,” Klamm said. “We need to stop borrowing from China because they’re extremely powerful and we’re not paying them back. If someone borrowed a lot of money from me, I’d expect them to pay me back.”
Partnering on the ballot was the controversial Amendment 64, which sparked different opinions from both sides. Both Hall and Mills voted “yes” on the amendment, citing the tax reasons and plans to send the funds to education as their incentives. However, voters on the right had a different view.
“I voted no on the amendment because I had a friend who was killed in a car accident while he was high on marijuana,” Personett said. “I just hope that it can be used safely and people make the safe decisions.”
Klemm also voted against the amendment’s passing.
“It’s a gateway drug and shouldn’t be used recreationally,” she said. “Plus, I just don’t want to smell the smoke when I’m walking along.”
Collegian Writer Sean Meeds can be reached at news@collegian.com.
