Sophomore Maddie Thurin said she stood in line for two hours to cast her vote for the Indiana midterm elections.
Thurin, a first-time voter, joined hundreds of others students who waited Tuesday afternoon at the Indiana Memorial Union after more students showed up than expected and the polling location ran out of ballots multiple times. Monroe County polls were extended an extra hour to 7 p.m. because of the shortage.
Although Thurin said she was supposed to give her friend a ride to another polling location, she had to back out because her own wait time was longer than expected.
“It’s important that the next generation that’s coming into this nation has their values represented,” Thurin said.
This is the first time the IMU has been used as a polling location, combining Union Street Center and Memorial Stadium, which had been used before. It covers Bloomington precincts 5, 18, 19 and 23.
The line caused problems for some. One student walked away from the IMU on her phone, complaining to whoever was on the other end that she had to leave before casting her ballot and wouldn’t be able to come back.
Volunteers for local campaigns and the Big Ten Voting Challenge did everything they could to make it easier for voters to stay. They asked voters to make sure the IMU was their actual polling location after some people wrongly assumed they could vote at the IMU even if they were registered somewhere else.
They handed out Pizza X slices, Jimmy John’s chips and Baked! of Bloomington cookies.
Liz Watson, the Democratic candidate for Indiana’s 9th congressional district, shook hands with those waiting and made her final appeals to get them to vote for her. She wore a blazer that matched the royal blue color of her party.
Although not up for reelection, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton also stopped by to thank students for participating in the democratic process. He said they should stay in line no matter how long it took.
“Let me know if you need a class excuse,” Hamilton called out. “I’m the mayor.”
Freshman Aschlee Holloway came around 4 p.m. after her classes were over because she expected the line to be long.
Her friends came earlier in the day when the line was slightly shorter, but they warned her that they still had to wait.
Holloway said she took her friends’ warning into consideration, and she wasn’t too concerned about standing in line because she wanted to cast her ballot.
“If I don’t vote, I can’t be mad,” she said.
