Presidential Race at Vassar 2004

On Nov. 2, the entire campus held its breath as the 2004 presidential election unfolded. Students particpated on all levels, from voting, to helping others vote, to traveling to other states in order to canvas for candidates. By the end of the day, however, all there was left to do was to sit and wait for the results.

Printed below are a selection of quotes from various members of the Vassar community. To see the photos from that day, click here to see page 1or click here to see page 2 from our print coverage of the election.

“Election night so far for me has been an emotional roller coaster. From cautious optimism, to worry, to intense doubt, to jubilation, to almost despair, I have felt just about everything tonight. But the thing that has kept a smile on my face has been the reaction of the Vassar community—the unity that everyone has displayed, the comradeship, reminds me that the country will go on no matter who wins this election, and the fact that there are so many young people so involved is truly inspiring.” —Kelly Peterman ’07, Head Chair of the Villard Room Election Party

“I spent the past Monday and Tuesday with four other members of the Vassar Ultimate Frisbee team working half a day for Allyson Schwartz, a PA state senator running for a highly contested seat in the House, and a day and a half working with MoveOn PAC to get targeted swing voters who were swinging toward Kerry to come out and vote. It is an intensely strange and disconcerting experience to feel at the same moment like you are doing work that could make a difference during a moment that might change history, and that maybe your work is totally ineffective in that same vital moment.” —Emma Groetzinger ’05

“As a medieval historian, I try to take comfort in the past. If England could survive 17 years under an inept ruler like King John, we can survive another four years of Bush. We have strong institutions in this country, created to weather such storms. And don’t forget, John got his comeuppance with Magna Carta, so there’s even more reason to hope! Now if we could just find a band of nobles on horseback to storm the oval office…” —Nancy Bisaha, Assistant Professor of History

“On paltry amounts of sleep we volunteers of VoteMob Ohio and Downtown for Democracy have placed our faith in mobilizing the Democratic youth vote in Franklin County, Ohio. Surreally, I may not know the results of this grassroots struggle by the time I reach Vassar’s campus on Wednesday afternoon, as we experienced in the 2000 presidential election. While the energy in Skully’s Bar on High Street in Columbus, Ohio was sporadic, no one seems willing to admit despite their dedication to the cause we may not be awarded an answer tonight.” —Caitlin Maloney ’05

“I was so sure that Bush won—in August. Once he spoke in (horribly white) Spanish at his convention, I declared him the winner and have been sulking ever since. Everything about the closeness of the election was meaningless to me. Then Nov. 2 finally arrived. I’ve spent the night compulsively checking news sites for exit polls and other assorted numbers. I think I get now what everyone was talking about. It’s a really close election. Go figure." —Evan Casper-Futterman ’07

“I went to the Election Party around 12:30 a.m., to assess the campus mood. When I walked in, there was dead silence; the sense of quiet despair was palpable. Later, myself and a few MICA members watched the continuing saga in the Main MPR, where the despair of the students was slowly turning to shock; people were hugging each other, like a relative had died. No one seemed capable of comprehending how this had happened, how Bush could triumph (apparently), despite their enormous and energetic hatred for him. Oddly enough for this campus, it was the conservatives who stayed up into the early hours of the morning, huddled around a TV, often cheering, while nearly everyone else had long before gone to bed.” —Harrison Kell ’05, MICA President

“What's really hitting me right now is the fact that for the first time, despite the results in my state, I'm watching an election where I'm an active participant, rather than a mere observer; as a result, even though I doubt the election's going to be decided tonight, I can't tear myself away from the television, because I'm actually a part of it.” —Allison Chandler ’07

“Kerry did better than Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis. But they all lost. The Democratic Party had better start thinking long and hard about why it is that they haven't been able to win a landslide since 1964, why both houses of Congress are in the hands of the other party, and why it is that young people are self-identifying as conservative to pollsters at the highest rate ever seen. If something isn't done, then the Republican Party will become the tenured majority party in the same way that the Democrats were for almost 50 years after Roosevelt first took office. As a country, we need two vibrant parties to restrict the excesses of the other side and ensure that the country is governed from the center. I hope the Democrats get back on the ball.” —Sean Flynn, Assistant Professor of Economics

—Compiled by Judy Jarvis, Senior Editor. Additional reporting by Larissa Pahomov, Contributing Editor and Aaron Biberstein, Editor in Chief. Graphics by Tiffany Chow, DesPro Editor.