Armed with signs that read slogans such as "King George is a puppet for corporations that own his soul," a group of protesters gathered yesterday in front of University Gates to picket George W. Bush's presidency.

Illona Scroggins, a 27-year-old resident of Shamokin Dam, organized the demonstration. The protest is part of a nation wide movement called "Not My President's Day," organized by Democracymarch.org.

Scroggins contacted several Penn State organizations to join the protest but didn't get any response, she said.

Less than 10 protesters held signs reading "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" and "Citizens for fair and accurate elections," among others.

They also sang songs to attract attention, the first was "Should All Our Ballots Be Forgot" sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne." The group also chirped out a rendition "Yankee Doodle," changing the words to "Riding on a Monkey."

Demonstrators handed out printouts of the reason for "Not My Presidents Day." "We are convinced that the election was stolen," read the document, and it stated the president's agenda should be fought against because "his agenda, like Bush himself, is illegitimate."

John Hoaglund, a research associate at Penn State and Voter March organizer for the Inauguration Day protest, said he was demonstrating because he was a disenfranchised voter.

"It was the crimes the brought me out today, the crimes against voters that are threatening our democracy," Hoaglund said. "We're going to lose our democracy if we don't take care of it."

Janice Russo, a 58-year-old Penn State Dubois student, was a bipartisan protestor who came to support the issues of campaign finance reform, term limits, and voting reform, rather than to protest the Bush's legitimacy as president.

"We need to clean up this mess that politics has gotten our country into," Russo said. "People need to stop being so complacent about politics."

Two students and one professor from Bucknell University also demonstrated. They heard about the protest from the Democracymarch Web site.

"I am here because I do not believe Bush should be our president," said Jenny Johnson, a senior majoring in music and psychology at Bucknell University. The protest prompted motorists to honk their horns and wave in support.

One passerby, Robert Piper from Renovo, stopped to express his support for the demonstrators.

"(Bush) is not my president," Piper said. "It's nice to see young people involved." "I'm behind you guys 100 percent," said another onlooker.

The protest did not meet with much opposition.

Andreas Dunsch, a visitor from Zschopau, Germany and former high school exchange student, took a picture of the protesters because he said that people in Germany also do not support Bush.

"I'm going to take the picture back to Germany to show that there still are people in the USA who are protesting Bush."

Another goal of the protest was to promote the upcoming Million Voter March scheduled for May 19 in Washington, D.C., Scroggins said.

"Not My Presidents Day" protest demonstrations took place across the country, in such locations as New York City, Los Angeles, West Palm Beach and Hawaii, organizers said.