It may not have been John King's magic map, but students at Penn State Hillel's Election Night Bash had their own way of keeping track of electoral votes Tuesday night.
About 30 students watched the CNN election results in the Cultural Lounge of Pollock Commons. After each of Wolf Blitzer's predictions, the students colored in states on a dry erase board map of the United States.
Though he is a Republican, Jared Jacobs (junior-secondary education), who attended the bash, stood in line for an hour to vote for Barack Obama Tuesday morning, he said."
Despite his political affiliation and his disdain for waking up early, voting for Obama was important to Jacobs.
"I need a president to pull out of Iraq," he said, adding that as an education major, he preferred Obama's education plan to John McCain's.
Jacobs chose not to vote in the other races on the ballot, because he said he didn't know enough about the candidates.
More religious Jewish people probably voted for McCain, he said, while less religious Jewish voters were more likely to go for Obama.
But religion is not the only factor in how someone votes, said Hillel director Aaron Kaufman, who said the bash was a non-partisan event.
"I know Jewish republicans. I know Jewish democrats. I know Jewish independents," he said.
Though many members of Hillel were in attendance, they were not the only people at the bash.
Christian Longacre (sophomore-mechanical and nuclear engineering) attended the bash because he is a member of the Pollock Halls Residence Association (PHRA), which co-sponsored the event.
Longacre voted for McCain, and said he was still hopeful that McCain would win even though CNN had just called Pennsylvania for Obama. He pointed out that CNN made the prediction with less than 1 percent of the vote in.
"Right now it's way too early to call it," he said, adding "they're just trying to stir people up and get them excited."
He said a combination of economic and social issues were his reason for filling in the McCain circle on his ballot at 8:45 Tuesday morning.
But Longacre, who did homework as he watched the election results, won't be crushed no matter how the election turns out, he said.
"It would take a lot to screw up the country now," he said, referring to the country's economic troubles.
Jacobs predicted Obama would win, but said he wouldn't stay up all night to find out.
"I will be able to sleep not knowing who won the presidency," he said.
