Election Day finally came Tuesday after a semester of talking about it with friends, reading about it online and discussing it in my classes, particularly my class on journalism and elections, JOUR 4932.
So after casting a ballot at my own polling place in the Alumni Memorial Union, I trekked over to Centennial Hall on 733 N. Eighth St.
Talking to people went fairly well. I didn’t seem to have the rejection rate Brynne Ramella and Alex Rydin had at the AMU. I managed to get a majority to talk to me. My personal theory is that people who have been waiting in line have lost the patience necessary to chat with a reporter, student journalist or otherwise.
I had an interesting range of responses. First was a woman, Anna Sweet, who said she voted straight Democrat and probably would voted Green if they were a viable choice. The next person I talked to, Marquette University student Chris Hardin, said he agreed with with his chosen candidate Mitt Romney across the board. Milwaukee is perceived as being extremely Democrat. (And correctly: It went 80–20 for Obama on Tuesday.) But parts of the city are much more moderate. The two wards that vote at Centennial Hall, 187 and 188, did go to Obama 55–44 in 2008, but that’s hardly a blowout.
If I had any problems, it was that Centennial Hall was too boring. There were very few people there when I was and things just went smoothly. I talked to a few election observers who really had little to report. There were no ballot shortages, broken machines or people disturbing others as they exercised their right to vote. This is good for the democratic process, of course, but makes live-blogging that much less interesting.
More to read
—Michael LoCicero shared what he learned from live-blogging — namely, that it isn’t his cup of tea.
—The Marquette Tribune and other Marquette student media had their own live-blog. (Full disclosure: I work for the Tribune.)
—Our professor aggregated the coverage from 14 other students and me at his website.
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