Students At Stony Brook Southampton Eager To Cast First Presidential Ballots

By By Kelly Carroll and Aaron Boyd

Many students on the SUNY Stony Brook Southampton campus are first-time voters, and have said to be voting for Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Photos by Aaron Boyd

Southampton - Although the students at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton do not consider their campus to be particularly politically charged, as of Monday morning, Nov. 3, the day before the election, many of them voiced strong support for Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

With the election just one day away, students are eager to cast their first vote in
a presidential election.

The student vote is expected to make a substantial difference in this year's presidential race, as youths across the country have registered in record numbers. For many of the students attending Stony Brook Southampton, Nov. 4 will be their first opportunity to vote in a presidential election.

On a quiet university campus, devoid of the political advertising visible across the East End this election season, undergraduates meeting for breakfast in the student center on Monday morning were surprisingly energetic about Tuesday's decision.

The campaigns stem from two very distinct ideologies, junior Katie Kennedy of Nassau County contended, a factor which has split the electorate into two separate voting populations. Kennedy assumed that most of the younger voters registered for the first time would be voting Democrat, supporting Obama's call for change.

Southampton junior Katie Kennedy said she sees two very different voting
populations between Democrats and Republicans.

In the nearby Treehouse Lounge, Amauwa Igwe, a junior from Shelter Island, agreed with Kennedy's sentiments, stating that he and his friends would be voting for Obama as well. "Shelter Island is for Obama," Igwe asserted. The only issue Igwe said he and his friends could side with McCain on was the call for more off-shore drilling, however that's not enough to get their support, he explained.

"Obama can't win," sophomore Nikki Neisseni countered, citing rumors of the Illinois senator's ties to Middle Eastern funding and a secret Muslim past.

Gabrielle Andersen, a freshman at the university, has been researching the presidential race with her father and they both decided Obama would make a better president than his opponent, Sen. John McCain. "Not one of my friends are voting for McCain," Andersen asserted. If McCain did win, Andersen would be "super disappointed." Andersen also added, "A lot of people my age see it's time for a change."

Students were vaguely familiar with the congressional race between incumbent representative Tim Bishop (D-NY) and GOP challenger Lee Zeldin, though they did not have a strong leaning either way. The other local races, for a seat in the New York State Assembly, on the Southampton Town Board and in the Town Justice Court, are not on the students' radar.

Adoree Belmonte (left) and Sarah Drucker made an impromtu sign to show
their support for Sen. Obama as there was little political signage on campus.

The League of Women Voters registered the mostly Suffolk County-based student voters in the campus student center and the university will be providing shuttle buses into Southampton Village throughout the day for students registered locally. The shuttles will be running each half hour between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Lot A on Tuesday.

When the students are finished casting their ballots, they are invited to head to the Treehouse Lounge, inside the student center, to watch the election returns from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the big screen television. Environmental and Political Science professor James Quigley will be hosting the event and American fare, mainly hot-dogs and hamburgers, will be served.

"This is the first presidential election for practically every student," Stony Brook Southampton's media relations manager Darren Johnson explained, as few students are over the age of 22, "They're very interested in voting, this is an exciting first election."

At The Treehouse Lounge: Junior Amauwa Igwe, from Shelter Island, said that many of his friends disagree with Obama's stance on off-shore drilling, but were still going to cast their ballots for him tomorrow.

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