Penn State: 1000 Youth in Line to Vote at 7am

This came in this morning from Power Vote organizers in Pennsylvania.

This video was shot by Bill Sheibler at Penn State University -- University Park, PA 16802.

Almost 1000 students in line to vote by 7am.

In New Hampshire, Power Vote organizers reported students lining up to vote at 4:30am.

The youth vote (18-30 year old) is 44 million strong and likely to make up 25% of the electorate today.

It's a powerful national voice that is demanding green jobs and clean energy to reinvigorate and re-power our economy, and the securing of our climate to ensure we have a safe, healthy future for ourselves and our children.

Directors of youth-focused organizations such as Campus Progress, Rock the Vote, Power Vote, Sierra Student Coalition, and dozens of others are going to be monitoring the youth vote (and the youth "green" vote) all day at Rock the Vote in Washington, DC and reporting back...

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Comments

[jeniferdaniels]

06:23 PM on 11/09/2008

your students help elect Obama! whoo hoo! Penn turned BLUE! just like my students in NC!

[markysgirl5]

02:51 PM on 11/04/2008

Now if we, the faculty here at Penn State, could only get them to come to class with this much enthusiasm! But seriously, I'm so proud of these young people I could cry (and I have!). I went out a lunch time and saw students offering free rides to the polls. I'm watching them from my office window now and you can see their pride of purpose in how they're walking and talking. I can only imagine what the African American students must be feeling right now. I feel very privileged to have a ring-side seat to all of this. No matter what the outcome of this election I hope that Penn State President Graham Spanier publicly praises our students on this awesome display of citizenship and community action. Everyone gets an "A" today!

[celiapleete]

05:31 PM on 11/04/2008

I am an instructor at Penn State too, and I have never been prouder of our students. They're coming in proudly wearing "I Voted" stickers, talking about how excited they are for this election, and are discussing the election with clarity and passion. It is so heartening to see so many people out there, caring, taking a part in the democratic process. It brought tears to my eyes to see a huge line on Prospect today that was almost all people under 25. In the HUB, the rally was even sweeter.
After witnessing the frightening PSU Palin rally last week, I was scared that the students wouldn't come out to vote. Seeing the gross ignorance of so many people in this county, all I wanted to see was students coming out to make it happen and make their voices heard. To paraphrase George Orwell, "The unteachable are a string of corpses hanging about our necks."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAorZo_ASU