As University of Michigan 

students line up at the polls 
Tuesday to select either 
Democratic presidential nominee 
Hillary Clinton or Republican 
presidential nominee Donald 
Trump as the 45th President 
of the United States, some are 
expressing more hesitancy than 
enthusiasm as they cast their 
ballot and wait for the results.

The race in Michigan has 

significantly narrowed in the 
final weeks leading up to the 
election, after Clinton’s lead in 
Michigan of 11 percent as late as 
October 21st diminished to a lead 
of only three percent t heading 
into Election Day, according to 
the RealClearPolitics polling 
average.

Both the Clinton and 

Trump campaigns have spent 
considerable amounts of time in 
the state during the last week. 
On Monday, both Clinton and 
Trump held events in Allendale 
and Grand Rapids, and multiple 
surrogates visited as well, 
including a stop from President 
Barack Obama in Ann Arbor.

In the final Michigan Daily 

student survey before the 
election completed on November 
6th, 76 percent said they would 
vote for Clinton, 13 percent would 
vote for Trump and six percent 
for Gary Johnson. However, 
in the same survey, only 32.1 
percent of Clinton voters and 
11.5 percent of Trump voters 
said they were “excited” at the 
prospect of a presidency of their 
chosen candidate. This trend 
mirrors the national perception 
of the two candidates, with 
54.4 percent viewing Clinton 
as “unfavorable” and 58.5 
percent viewing Trump as 
“unfavorable,” according to the 
RealClearPolitics polling average.

Some students at the polls 

Tuesday echoed this sentiment, 
including LSA senior Anam Shah 
who said he cast his ballot for 
Clinton, but may have chosen 
differently if he had a choice of 
other candidates.

“Honestly, it’s pretty much a 

lesser of two evils,” Shah said. “I 
am not a fan of her foreign policy, 
domestically, she’s perfectly 
fine; given any other Democratic 
nominee and I had a choice, I 
may not have gone with her.”

Echoing Shah’s sentiments, 

LSA junior Dom Hamid said he 
doesn’t find either candidate 
appealing, but cast his ballot 
for Trump as a vote against the 
political establishment that he 
feels Clinton embodies.

“Both candidates are the 

most unfavorable candidates in 
modern history; I don’t care for 
either of them, I don’t respect 
either of them,” Hamid said. “I 
voted for Trump because my vote 
was mostly an anti-establishment 
vote, I think that the Clintons 
really encapsulate about what is 
really wrong about government 
these days just in general.”

Law student Michael 

Trombetta said he voted for 
Clinton, but also expressed 
discontent with the choices.

“It sucks that we picked these 

two people, because they’re both 
clowns, honestly, they’re both 
clowns.” Trombetta. “It just 
sucks that this is what we’re left 
with, but honestly, I just want 
to be alive in four years and I 
feel like Hillary gives me that 
chance.”

Ann Arbor resident Ryan 

Wolande, who graduated from 
the University in April, wouldn’t 
share who he voted for, but 
expressed distaste by saying 
he thinks this election is an 
extremely poor reflection on the 
United States. 

“I am not going to say who 

I am voting for but you can say 
it is not either of the two main 
candidates,” Wolande said. “This 
is a shit show, this is terrible, 
this is an embarrassment as a 
country.”

Vicki Lawrence, also an Ann 

Arbor resident, said she cast her 
vote for Clinton. She also said 
though she’s been voting since 
the 1970s, this election cycle was 

her most tumultuous.

“Oh it was horrible! We all 

know that, I don’t know anybody 
on any side who doesn’t say 
that,” Lawrence said. “I think 
the amount of vilification, the 
amount of negativity, and of 
course the craziness of it, but I 
think Hillary’s been by and large 
a voice of sanity in the midst of an 
awful lot of craziness.”

LSA junior Drew 

Summersett, said he voted for 
libertarian candidate Johnson 
because he felt he couldn’t justify 
a vote for Clinton or Trump. 
He said he found Trump to be 
rude and selfish, and cited his 
questionable business tactics as 
reasons for his decision.

“I cannot in good conscience 

vote for the main party 
candidates,” Summersett 
said. “Trump’s not a good 
businessman in terms of other 
people besides himself, and I 
don’t want that kind of person as 
my president.

Clinton’s email scandal also 

played a role in his decision, 
Summersett said. He added that 
as a member of the military, he 
questions Clinton’s responsibility 
despite her being recently 
acquitted by the Federal Bureau 
of Investigation.

“For Hillary, yes, she’s 

been acquitted twice for the 
email thing, but I’m actually 
a military member myself 
and for us if anything like 
that happened even once 
that’s enough to go to jail 
for,” Summersett said. “For 
someone who has so much more 
authority and responsibility 
than me to be able to get away 
with something like that, not 
to mention she should know 
better, I don’t want that as my 
commander in chief.”

Similarly, LSA freshman 

Sarah Riedel said the choice for 
president wasn’t preferable, but

“I voted for Trump because I 

believe that he is the lesser of two 
evils in this campaign,” Riedel 
said.

However, some students were 

more enthusiastic about their 
choice — either because of the 
candidate they selected, or over 
concerns about their opponent. 
LSA senior Matt Sehrsweeney 
said although he doesn’t love 
Clinton, it was an easy choice 
for him to vote for her because 
he believes Clinton has many 
similarities to Obama.

“I don’t love her at all, but 

I think in many respects, she’d 
make a very good President,” 
Sehrsweeney said. “I don’t like 
her foreign policy at all, but she 
is astoundingly well prepared 
to be President and I think 
domestically she supports some 
important things.”

Another student, LSA senior 

Molly Weiss, also said she was 
enthusiastic to vote for Clinton, 
rather than simply voting for 
her because the alternative was 
Trump.

“I’m definitely excited to be 

voting for her (Hillary),” Weiss 
said. “It’s not just to sort of 
outrule the other candidate.”

Rackham student Nikolas 

Midtunn also voted for Clinton, 
but said he misses when the 
tone between candidates was 
more civil and the prospect of 
the Republican winning was less 
frightening.

“I’m almost nostalgic for 

previous elections, like Mitt 
Romney and George Bush, they 
seemed so innocent,” Midtunn 
said. “I’ve voted Democrat my 
whole life, but the stakes just 
seemed so much lower, it was so 
much safer.”

Law Prof. Michael Bloom, 

who voted for Clinton, instead 
expressed fear at the prospect of 
a Trump presidency.

“It (the election) has gotten 

me more fired up about politics,” 
Bloom said. “I went to college 
here, I graduated 10 years ago, 
and I was a history major, and 
I took classes on the rise of 
Naziism and vimer Germany, and 
a lot of that redirect sounded too 
familiar.”

Many students are facing long 

wait times to vote as lines snake 
through University buildings 
with peak waits of up to two 
hours, and both state election 
limitations or higher than usual 
voter turnout could be factors.

At 8:00 p.m. when the polls 

closed, 1,200 people had voted 
in Ward 1 Precinct 1 and 868 
people had voted in Ward 1 
Precinct 4 at the Michigan 
Union; at the Michigan League, 
1,067 people had voted in Ward 
3 precinct 1 and 1,137 people had 
voted in Ward 3 precinct 2. As of 
Tuesday afternoon, wait times 
were estimated at 40 minutes 
for Ward 3 precinct 2 and over 
90 minutes at Ward 1 precinct 
1. Since then, wait time at the 
League’s precincts has dropped 
to about 10 minutes. At 8:00 

p.m. at the Union, the lines were 
empty. 

Engineering 
junior 
Karen 

Xiong said she was frustrated 
with the long voting lines on 
Election Day, adding if she had 
more classes today she may not 
have waited to vote.

“I think the waiting times are 

ridiculous and they should even 
it out more, because I’ve heard 
people saying other places don’t 
really have lines,” Xiong said. 
“Honestly, if I had more classes 
today, I probably wouldn’t have 
waited this long.”

LSA 
freshman 
Lauren 

Chapman also said she had 
been in the line for Ward 1, 
Precinct 1 for about a half an 
hour around 5 p.m. She said she 
was not going to leave and come 
back, but wait - even though 
she said organizers told her the 
wait would be two hours due to 
incorrect districting this year.

“I debated not voting just 

because of the wait,” Chapman 
said. “I don’t think anyone wants 
to wait in this line, especially 
because in Ward 4, there’s no 
line, so that’s super frustrating.”

A third student, Engineering 

sophomore Andrew Kruper said 
he got to the polls around 4 p.m. 
At the time of his interview with 
the Daily, he had been waiting 
an hour. He said he expected to 
wait at least two hours total with 
what poll officials were telling 
students waiting in line.

“(The election process) has 

been really annoying to hear 
about for the past year and 
a half, but it’s almost over,” 
Kruper said, highlighting that 
though the wait was long, he was 
enthusiastic to vote and see the 
results later in the evening.

Ecology 
and 
evolutionary 

biology professor Meghan Duffy 
also 
expressed 
concern 
on 

Twitter over the long lines at the 
Michigan Union, even though it 

was not her polling place.

“Very long voting lines at 

Michigan 
League,” 
Duffy 

tweeted. “Student leaving 
said she waited an hour to 
vote but line is now twice as 
long.”

Contrary to what other 

election officials at polling 
places may have announced 
to voters, Jim Wessel Walker, 
Precinct Chairman in Ward 
1, Precinct 1 said the delay in 
voting was not due to an Ann 
Arbor ordinance, but rather 
due to a lack of preparation 
for the high number of voters.

“It’s not a city ordinance 

or anything like that, it’s just 
that’s how many electronic 
poll books. The hang up is 
the poll book. We’re issuing 
about one ballot a minute 
with our two poll books.” 

A poll book is the machine 

that 
reads 
and 
records 

ballots.

Tweets
Follow @michigandaily

Jeremy Parks

@j_mitchell47

Really encouraging to see so 
many people out to vote @
umich this afternoon! Don’t 
mind waiting if it means 
everyone is casting a ballot.

Sanela
@suhnella
When I went to vote there 
were 2 people in line....and 
some of y’all are waiting an 
hour and a half

Zolo
@TeeRoy_20

In line to vote for the first 
time ever #Murica

Marcus McCall
@Lordmajor_

If you can vote and you don’t, 
you can’t complain with the 
results tonight

2A — Wednesday, November 9, 2016
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BRIEF: STUDENTS LACK ENTHUSIASM FOR CANDIDATES AT POLLS

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the 
University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office 
for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $225 and year long subscriptions are $250. University affiliates are subject to a 
reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a 
member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.

420 Maynard St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327

www.michigandaily.com

ARTS SECTION

arts@michigandaily.com

SPORTS SECTION

sports@michigandaily.com

ADVERTISING

dailydisplay@gmail.com

NEWS TIPS

news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

HUSSEIN HAKIM

Business Manager

734-418-4115 ext. 1241

hjhakim@michigandaily.com

SHOHAM GEVA

Editor in Chief

734-418-4115 ext. 1251

sageva@michigandaily.com

LAURA SCHINAGLE 
Managing Editor schlaura@michigandaily.com

EMMA KERR 
Managing News Editor emkerr@michigandaily.com
Senior News Editors: Allana Akhtar, Jacqueline Charniga, 
Emma Kinery, Camy Metwally, Katie Penrod
Assistant News Editors: Riyah Basha, Kevin Biglin, Caleb 
Chadwell, Tim Cohn, Will Feuer, Nisa Khan, Jennifer Meer, 
Lydia Murray, Caitlin Reedy, Alexa St. John 

CLAIRE BRYAN and REGAN DETWILER 
Editorial Page Editors 
 opinioneditors@michigandaily.com

Senior Opinion Editors: Caitlin Heenan, Ben Keller, Anna 
Polumbo-Levy, Rebecca Tarnopol, Stephanie Trierweiler

MAX BULTMAN and JAKE LOURIM 
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

KATHLEEN 
DAVIS and ADAM THEISEN 

Managing Arts Editors 
 arts@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Caroline Filips, Melina Glusac, Jacob 
Rich, Ben Rosenstock 
Arts Beat Editors: Matthew Barnauskas, Christian Kennedy, 
Rebecca Lerner, Natalie Zak

AMANDA ALLEN and GRANT HARDY 
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

ANJALI ALANGADEN and FRANCESCA KIELB
Managing Design Editors 
design@michigandaily.com

Senior Design Editors: Kaitlyn Beukema, Michelle Phillips, 
Ava Weiner, Jacob Wellins

KARL WILLIAMS 
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com 
 

Deputy Statement Editor: Nabeel Chollampat
Statement Photo Editor: Zoey Holmstrom
Statement Lead Designer: Shane Achenbach
Statement Creative Director: Emilie Farrugia

EMILY CAMPBELL and ALEXIS NOWICKI 
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Danielle Jackson, Taylor Grandinetti

NIVEDITA KARKI 
Managing Online Editor nivkarki@michigandaily.com

Senior Web Developers: Dylan Lawton, Bob Lesser

LEVIN KIM 
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com

Senior Video Editors: Michael Kessler, Abe Lofy, Emma 
Winowiecki

DEMARIO LONGMIRE and TONI WANG 
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Sabrina Bilimoria, Christian 
Paneda, Ashley Tjhung

MICHAEL SCHRAMM 
Special Projects Manager

EMMA SUTHERLAND 
Managing Social Media Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

734-418-4115 opt. 3 

CORRECTIONS

corrections@michigandaily.com

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

ASJA KEPES 
Sales Manager

ANNA HE 
Special Publications and Events Manager

SONIA SHEKAR 
Digital Marketing Manager

EMILY RICHNER 
National Accounts Manager

JULIA SELSKY
Local Accounts Manager

CLAIRE BUTZ 
Production and Layout Manager

Senior Photo Editors: Zoey Holmstrom, Ryan McLoughlin, Zach Moore
Assistant Photo Editors: Claire Abdo, Sinduja Kilaru, Sam 
Mousigian, Marina Ross, David Song

Senior Sports Editors: Betelhem Ashame, Minh Doan, Jacob 
Gase, Kelly Hall, Ted Janes, Kevin Santo
Assistant Sports Editors: Chloe Aubuchon, Laney Byler, Chris 
Crowder, Sylvanna Gross, Mike Persak, Orion Sang

Senior Social Media Editors: Ellie Homant, Carolyn Watson

COLLEGE BROKE.
puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

Voter turnout downtown reaches 
1,000 at student-heavy precincts

Students find long lines, peak wait times of up to two hours at many locations

CALEB CHADWELL

Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

