The College Democrats will be hosting what promises to be the biggest Election Day party at Lawrence in decades. The party starts in Riverview lounge at 8 p.m. and is nonpartisan. Volunteers will be keeping track of the status of the senatorial races in Wisconsin and Illinois as well the presidential race. Information will be written up on whiteboards as it comes in.
Riverview lounge will be open for activities from 7 a.m. November 2 until 2 a.m. the next day. Televisions in Riverview lounge will broadcast election coverage from CNN, Fox, and MSNBC all day and will become the focus of activities later in the evening.
New activities will begin every hour from 9 p.m. until midnight and will include Bush and Kerry trivia and various election games. Activities director Kass Kuehl says the games should be “fun and goofy.” Specific possibilities are election-themed pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and bobbing for apples. Food and decorations will abound.
Kuehl emphasizes that everyone is welcome to attend. “In addition to being productive,” she says, “we want to party harder than we have since 1972.”
For the College Democrats, however, the day will start long before the festivities begin. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., volunteers will be “phone-banking” -calling Lawrence students, faculty, and the surrounding community to remind people to vote and to collect statistics on voting methods. Information derived from phone-banking will later be publicized in a report focusing on student turnout and absentee voting.
The Election Day celebration is the latest in a series of successful College Democrat activities, such as the Feingold and Kerry rallies and the debate-watching parties. If you are interested in volunteering for election-day activities, contact kuehlk@lawrence.edu.