Students cast their votes early

Filing through Indiana Memorial Union, students, faculty and members of the Bloomington community waited in line to cast their early votes for the Indiana primary election.\nWith Indiana’s May 6 primary nearing, this event gave students registered in Monroe County an opportunity to cast their votes before finals are over and they head home. \n“I’ve seen people handing out fliers in front of Ballantine all week,” said freshman George Venious.\nWith Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama neck and neck in the battle for the Democratic Party nomination, Indiana’s delegates could be the determining factor in the election process.\n“We have never seen two people go at it like this,” said sophomore Brittany Russell.\nMany students found Alumni Hall in the IMU a convenient location to hold the voting.\n“I feel like more people will vote because of the location,” said Steve Selka, an IU professor who was voting at the IMU on Thursday. “I may not have come if it was anywhere else.”\nStanding outside the Union reminding \nstudents to vote, sophomore and active volunteer for the campaign Michael Berbari passed out fliers while sporting an Obama pin.\nDespite last-minute campaigning efforts, students remained split between the two candidates. \n“I am voting for Clinton,” Venious said. “I’m not really sure what Obama stands for – he has too many slogans.”\nBut Obama supporters disagreed.\n“Obama offers something new that the older generation cannot comprehend,” Berbari said. “He offers a different type of politics.”\nObama’s unannounced visit to the women’s Little 500 on April 11 might have swayed some students’ votes as well.\n“I’m voting for Obama,” said junior Kris Stephens. “My neighbor works for Obama support, and I met him the other day at the race.”\nWith some students waiting in line for more than an hour, it was evident that the location played a major factor in those coming out to vote. Cameron Smith, the Van Buren township assessor, said there have been more people in line at the IMU than at the Curry Building, 301 N. College Ave.\n“The lines are definitely long right now; we’ve already seen evidence of that,” Berbari said. “It might be different if we had this all week. This is kind of like IU’s election day.”