feature: election 2008

helped change history. I voted.

Stephanie Steinberg

aking up on Nov. 4, I could feel the election

the side and allowed the students to rejoice.

in the air at the University of Michigan in Ann

As a speck in the sea of students sporting Obama T-shirts,

Arbor.

pins and posters, I couldn't have asked for a more

exhilarating

The College Democrats and Republicans had chalked the

and historic first election to be part of. Students — blacks,

sidewalks at 3 a.m. with "Gobam" and "McCain '08" slogans.

whites, Asians, Latinos, you name it — chanted Obama's

I was especially impressed by the giant "Vote Obama" bubble

name in unison.

letters covering every inch of the tennis courts on Palmer

While Obama had only been named

Field. Flyers that simply stated "Vote Nov. 4" littered campus

president-elect for three hours, he had

buildings, lecture halls and dorms.

united U-M students, ready for the fu-

College Dems had posted sticky notes with the name of

ture's hopeful change.

the assigned precinct to every door in each dorm. Before and

after classes, students and professors made nonpartisan pub-

lic announcements to go vote. Residence halls flooded e-mail

inboxes with voting reminders.

It worked. Many students woke up at 6:30 a.m. to get to

the polls before class. Others endured two-hour waiting lines.

Stephanie Steinberg, 18, is a freshman

at the University of Michigan.

President-elect Obama

Hillel's mock election chose Obama, too.

Some even drove back home to vote. I voted at Markley, a

dorm on campus. I arrived at 11:30 a.m. and finished at 1

p.m. Thankfully, I had a late afternoon class; but I listened to

one student 20 places behind me in line fret about his class

he could not miss at 1 p.m.

"I have to be there," he kept repeating. "The teacher takes

attendance."

At 12:45 p.m., sympathetic students ahead of me let him

cut to the front of the line.

While I was excited to cast my ballot, I was more eager

to hear the election results. I watched on a 12-inch TV in a

cramped dorm room with nine other girls. As CNN projected

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-III., the next president, screams

of joy filled the six-story building. Students hugged each other,

called their families and, after listening to Obama's accep-

tance speech, ran to the Diag. My friend and I decided to join

the celebration.

Thousands congregated on the Diag high-fiving each other,

crying with joy, shouting "Obama" and waving "Yes, We Can"

signs and the American flag. Out of nowhere, a band assembled

with drums and started beating a celebratory rhythm. When the

band moved toward the Union, we blindly followed the crowd.

Behind the band, students danced down State Street blocking

all traffic. The Ann Arbor police appeared, but they watched from

Colton Graub

Hillel Day School of Metropolitan

Detroit held a mock election at

the end of October, put together

by social studies teachers Joshua

Cutler and Leslie Baron.

Students marched into an

empty classroom ready to vote.

Dr. Rob Bardach, head of the

school's seventh- and eighth-

grade division, said, "The goal of

this mock election is to familiar-

ize our students with the electoral

Left: Seventh-grader Bradley Levin verifies seventh-grader Erin Graub's voter registra-

tion card. Right: Eighth-grader Brenna Glldenberg casts her vote.

process and voting at the polls."

The city of Farmington Hills lent the school four voting booths

and one ballot tabulation machine for the mock election.

presidential election in 2012.

If the students were legally able to vote, they would have

Before the election, students in both grades vigorously de-

helped Sen. Barak Obama become the 44th president of the

bated the presidential election in class and in the hallways.

United States of America. "This opportu-

Both sides laid out their arguments with passion and enthusi-

nity to engage our students in the mock

asm that surprised even their teachers.

election will serve them well in the fu-

To further the students' experience, members of the Hil-

ture,"

Dr. Bardach

said.

lel Day School Student Congress served as polling station

Colton Graub, 13, Is an eighth-grader at

officials and

Hillel Day School In Farmington Hills.

guided fellow classmates through the voting pro-

cess. Some of these students will be able to vote in the next

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