Allie Johnson
Students flowed in and out of campus polling locations all day.
Caroline Russell was on a mission. Dressed in a lime green T-shirt that read, "vote today," Russell was camped out on UW-Madison's East Campus Mall, urging students to cast a vote in Tuesday's election.
A UW junior, Russell and other volunteers used iPads to direct students to the appropriate polling locations.
For Russell, the right to vote is more than just an obligation: "If you don't vote you don't have the right to complain about the state of affairs."
Organizations, students, professors -- even Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke -- all made a full court press to get out the student vote Tuesday.
Hoping to topple Republican incumbent Scott Walker, Burke stopped in at several campus locations with a simple message: "It's not too late to vote."
The voting drive appeared to be working, as students steadily flowed in and out of campus polling locations throughout the day, according to poll workers.
Madison Ald. Mike Verveer, who has been working as a poll worker at the UW for over 20 years, said while he does not expect turnout for student voters to exceed the 2012 presidential election, he was pleased with how many students are voting.
Over half of the students who voted at Gordon Dining and Event Center, where Verveer is the chief inspector, were already registered. At 5:15 p.m. about 1,050 ballots had been cast, with 441 of the voters registering today.
"I was pleasantly surprised how effective voting registration drives were on campus this year," Verveer said.
For many students, this is the first election they have been old enough to vote in. Freshmen Hunter Reed and Eli Gaedtke said they do not have particularly strong political opinions, but they voted because they can and they felt they should.
And many of their classmen urged them to do so. Said Reed: "A lot of people were posting on social media that they voted and were saying things like 'make your voice heard.'"
Freshman Ari Sysimaki said several of his professors emailed students reminding them to vote and "not to waste [their] votes."
Several student voters were from other states, but chose to vote in Madison. "I'm going to live here for the next four years," said Hannah Russo, a freshman from Illinois. "Back home, those issues don't affect me as much. This is my home now."
With a strongly conservative father and a left-leaning mother, Russo said she has views on both sides of the spectrum. However, education is the most important voting issue for her because there are a lot of teachers in her family.
"I feel obligated to vote," Russo said. "We have the right to. We should take advantage of it."
