Denver

DSC_0109, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, Election day

5:40 p.m. MST – Obscene amounts of time, stunning amounts of hard work, enough money to build a skyscraper, and tonight’s finally here. I spent the day meandering around the mountain town of Boulder encouraging the students there to get to the polls. The mountains here are lovely beyond description, the students are unfairly healthy, and almost every restaurant in town is giving away free food for students who voted.

The Rock the Vote bus crew was here with a DJ, a tent, lots of free stuff, and a bullhorn.

“Hey you! Did you vote yet?” Willa, a member of the tour and my little sister, hollers at a passing student through said bullhorn. He tries to ignore her.

“The one with the yellow T-shirt. You,” she continues.

He looks up. “Yes?” he says, tentatively.

“Come here! Take a sticker,” Willa says.

He does, then she turns to another student: “Hey you! Did you vote yet?”

The students are a little shell shocked. You can see why. The campus looks like an art festival. There is the little old woman walking around with a ‘Vote’ sandwich board; the group of fifteen students walking across campus as slowly as possible – maybe a foot every thirty seconds – in a piece of performance art they claim has something to do with voting; there is an Obama campaign bus driving idly around town; at least five groups trying to get students here to the polls; free giveaways from Ben and Jerry’s and Jimmy John’s; and there are chalk drawings and slogans on every inch of available sidewalk.

So far, there are almost no problems at the polls. Some students this morning had a bit of difficulty voting when they brought an out of state ID with them, but the confusion passed pretty quickly and the lines are not long. Colorado has had an absurdly successful early voting program and something in the realm of 70% of the students voted before election day. So the overwhelming response to our door knocking, our phone calls, and our bullhorn interactions is ‘I already voted.’

If it’s true – and it looks like it may be – then the young voters may have this particular vote very thoroughly rocked.

--Nick Brown