By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Voters casting their first votes for president were excited to go to the polls, even if they weren’t excited by their choices.
Mallori Henderson, waiting to vote this afternoon, said “honestly wish there would be some other candidates for my first election.”
She said she was ending up voting for Libertarian Gary Johnson.
Neither Cori Hager nor Alexis McKinley were excited about their choices, but they still believed it was important to vote.
“You have to express your opinion,” McKinley said.
“This is the one thing we get to voice our opinion on,” Hager said.
Tyanna Ebgerson said she felt all the candidates had their faults, “one more so than the other.”
She said she was going to vote for Hillary Clinton. She felt the support for Clinton has been quieter on campus. Donald Trump supporter “are everywhere.” And then, she said, “some people aren’t going to vote because they think their one vote doesn’t make a difference.”
Kayla Coats and John Haumwesser, of the Young Government Leaders, both said they were pleased with their choices, though neither would say how they voted.
Their group was one of those sponsoring an election watch party in the student union theater. The theater was packed.
Both were pleased with the level of interest shown in the event.
Coats said the election “is very liberating.”
“It’s great to see what direction our country wants to go,” she said.
Regardless of the outcome, she said, “America will continue to move on.”
Kyle Lamb, man of the Campus Republicans, said he expected the race to be close. While he reluctantly supporting Trump, that vote was cast mostly, he said, because he disliked Clinton more.
He felt a lot of people were voting more against someone.
Either way the election went “I’m not going to be cheering.”
As a country, he said, “we’ve got to unite.” The nation is too polarizes. “One of the biggest challenges facing the next president is to reunite the country,” he said.
Tshawn Sander said he as well was voting without enthusiasm in his case for Clinton.
He was originally a Martin O’Malley supporter, then backed Bernie Sanders.
If Trump wins “it may be the most depressing day of my life.”
In any event he was pessimistic about the country becoming unified.
