Boston University students watching the election results at BU Central Tuesday night broke into cheers as President Barack Obama was reelected by a margin of 97 electoral votes, with only Florida votes pending.
“I’m relieved,” said Ashley Teamer, a College of Fine Arts senior. “I have a renewed faith in the American people.”
Brandon Wood, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said the U.S. dodged a bullet with the election.
“Obama is a step in the right direction, but not as far as I would like,” he said.
Bekah Heath, a CAS freshman, said she voted for Obama on her absentee ballot because she gravitated toward his policies regarding women’s rights.
“He has a more equal kind of idea in mind when he’s thinking about them [women],” she said. “People don’t give him enough credit for what he’s really accomplished in the past four years.”
Jeannette Vasquez, a CAS junior who watched the results at the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, said she voted for Obama’s reelection as well.
“I voted for President Obama because I feel that he has my best interests in mind in terms of education and healthcare,” she said.
Michael Sciortino, a CAS freshman, said he would have voted for Romney but did not because he did not think his vote would make a difference.
“It’s not that I so much support Romney, it’s that I’m less than pleased with what Obama did — the debt’s gone up, employment’s gone up — he just didn’t deliver,” he said.
Christian Cho, assistant director at the HTC, said BU students in general are more liberal than university students across the country, especially the ones at the viewing party.
“It would be interesting to know if we do have conservative students here that are sort of hiding,” he said.
Shelby Carignan, a College of Communication junior, said the election party is a great way for people to get together for a meaningful subject.
“It’s just cool to see people come out and … people our age are involved, that they care about the issues at stake in this election,” she said.
While students watched the electoral votes roll in throughout the night, they said the race was close the entire night.
“The last I heard was that it is super, super close,” said Elizabeth Selmi, a CAS junior, while votes were still being calculated. “Hopefully, Obama wins.”
Students said although the election parties were a good place to watch the results, it was very confusing when results started to trickle in.
“It’s really loud in here and there’s three televisions going,” Carignan said early in the night. “Pretty much all the television stations are showing different results right now, so that’s really confusing.”
Aditya Rudra, Student Government executive vice president, said it is important for people to get together to watch and discuss the elections.
“I’m happy to see that the Howard Thurman Center and Student Government and other communities are giving people the space to watch and come together and have conversations about politics and things that matter,” Rudra, a SMG junior, said.
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