As presidential primary voting drew to a close Tuesday night, voting officials at both on-campus precincts said they were impressed with the high Boston University student turnout.
Michael David Trachtenberg, the warden who supervised voting at 111 Cummington St., said his precinct had been busy all day.
“There was a steady stream of students, and it was especially busy around lunchtime and times when students have breaks in their classes,” he said. “I was impressed with the turnout.”
One-hundred and seventeen people voted at 111 Cummington St., including two absentee ballots. Trachtenberg said he believed most of the voters were Warren Towers residents.
“We were excited to see such a large turnout,” he said. “From what I know about this precinct, today was much busier than I expected.”
At Myles Standish Hall, the other on-campus location for students to vote, 282 people had voted when the polls closed at 8 p.m. Voting officials at both places spent time after the voting officially ended to record the results so that they could accurately report them to City Hall.
“We have to do a lot of things to make sure we’ve counted properly,” Trachtenberg said.
College of General Studies sophomore Megan Long said she would have voted in the Texas primary if she were home, and added that she did not think enough students knew about the on-campus polling sites because they were poorly advertised.
“I don’t think that BU publicizes it enough,” she said. “I didn’t even know you could vote on campus.”
Trachtenberg said he wants students to take voting seriously.
“What the government does affects you and you should have a voice,” he said. “There are always choices, even though sometimes they are imperfect ones. More students should take advantage of the resources presented to them.”
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