Several Baker University students had the election pegged long before Sen. John McCain called Sen. Barack Obama to concede Wednesday.
Students and faculty gathered in Harter Union to watch election coverage and hear individual race reports from students in Bruce Anderson’s, associate professor of political science, Campaigns and Elections and Introduction to American Politics classes.
By 7:30 p.m., sophomore Kendra Hanson was worried about McCain’s chances.
Hanson has been following the battleground states and considered Missouri key for McCain.
Anderson thought McCain lost the race when Pennsylvania went to Obama.
Freshman Deanna Rios, an Ohio resident, was hoping for a McCain victory and acknowledged the importance of her home state, which ended up voting for Obama.
“Where I live is really Democratic, and 70 or 80 percent of the kids from my class will vote for Obama,” Rios said. “My grandparents are from the southern part where it’s more rural. I’ve seen both parts of Ohio, and it can go either way.”
While the presidential election may receive the most coverage, students in Anderson’s classes were eagerly checking Senate and Congressional race results throughout the night, with some waiting on Washington state’s results until 1 a.m. Wednesday.
“I think most people here will be right because we’ve been following the races so long,” senior Hali Jewell said after accurately predicting New Hampshire election results.
Jewell also was correct in predicting Obama’s win.
Freshman Joylin Hall has been confident in Obama’s chances for the past two weeks, so for her, the election watch was a time to enjoy the victory not be on the edge of her seat.
“It might have been more exciting if it was a more on-the-edge-of-your-seat thing, but I was thinking it was exciting this was happening,” Hall said.
She was surprised by the margin of Obama’s victory over McCain, expecting a closer race.
“It was amazing. There was so much energy in the atmosphere there,” she said.
Not everyone could be so excited, though.
“It didn’t really phase me for a while,” Rios said of learning of McCain’s loss. “I kind of sat there for a while. I think I looked really mean.”