As Election Day dawned on college campuses around the country, students awoke to a ‘voting buzz’ and long lines already forming at the polls. 

[check out tumblr for more updates from around the country]

Colorado
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At Colorado University Boulder, campaign volunteers recruited voters to sign a large ‘Ralphie’ buffalo mascot and organized live-action phone banking to urge more of their peers to the polls. At the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, student leaders urged their peers to take photos with their ‘I voted’ stickers and text them to their friends to build ‘Election Day buzz’. 

Massachusettes

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 At the University of Massachusetts, Lowell hundreds of voters line up at 9:30 am to cast their ballot. By 10:00 am, more than 700 had cast their ballot at the student precinct.

An intensive MassPIRG New Voters Project get out the vote campaign made 3,000 phone calls, text messages, classroom contacts and other efforts  contacts urging student voters to the polls in the days leading up to the election.

Pennsylvania 

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 By 9 am, 250 students had cast a ballot at five student precincts on Philadelphia’s Temple University campus.  In the days leading up to the elections, student leaders with PennPIRG New Voters Project helped to register 7,000 young voters on campus and made 20,000 reminders to mobilize young voters to the polls. 

At the University of Pittsburgh, the campus president sent an all-campus text message urging students to cast a ballot before the end of the day.  As of 8:30 am, more than 200 students had cast a ballot.

 New Jersey

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 New Jersey’s Rutgers University, student leaders with NJPIRG New Voters Project distributed ‘I Voted’ mustaches to student voters. 

[check out tumblr for more updates from around the country]

On campuses across North Carolina students are turning out in big numbers and having fun at the polls. Check out these updates from Appalachin State University, NC State, NC Central College, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Ashville and Western Carolina University. 

Big Highlight: NC Secretary of State at the polls!

Elaine Marshall, the NC Secretary of State stopped by NC State, hung out with our volunteers and endorsed the New Voters Project.
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More from NC State:

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Appalachin State University

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UNC Chapel Hill + Ashville

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[check out tumblr for more updates from around the country]

Young voter enthusiasm and lines to vote grew on college campuses over the course of the day. .

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[above] Clockwise (University of Maryland, Appalachian State University in North Carolina, Indiana University, and New Mexico State University). The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project organized intensive registration and get out the vote drives on these campuses that helped to register 5,600 students and make 37,408 vote reminders in the days leading up to the election.

To make sure students stuck out the wait and cast their ballot, organizers organized ‘parties at the polls’ and other creative tactics to entertain students while in line. At Indiana University, for example, student leaders decked out in ‘Poll Champ’ hats danced around students in line, wrote ‘I Voted’ in red and blue paint on student faces and blew bubbles to create a festive atmosphere.  The ‘Poll Champs’ also offered voting help to students with questions and refer those who encountered to an Election Day hotline staffed by attorneys.

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[above] Student leaders used creative methods to mobilize their peers to the polls and build Election Day Buzz. 

At North Carolina State University, student leaders enlisted the help of campus athletes to spread the ‘I Voted’ message.  At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, leaders asked students who just voted to snap a fun photo and text it to all their friends.  In California, CALPIRG New Voters Project leaders summoned the help of the Sun Gods and University of North Carolina students evoked.

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North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall joins NCPIRG student leaders at North Carolina State University in endorsing the New Voters Project and urging students to the polls today.