Election Night Party Brings Crowd
Written by Stevie Loop
When America votes, Columbia holds a party. On November 6, the Conway Center, 1104 S. Wabash St., hosted the election party of the year complete with pizza, candidate boxing, and live election coverage on four screens.
The night proved to be a success with over 250 students and faculty coming together to witness the historic results.
“We were very happy with the turnout,” said Aldo Guzman, director of Student Engagement. “Students came together to celebrate as a community.”
Hosting was a collaboration of 19 student groups on campus including SGA, Improv Club, Student Communications, The Columbia Chronicle, WCRX and many other clubs and organizations
The party began with food and music, and lead to hourly intervals of status updates of the candidates electoral votes. Many cheered as the candidate of their choice pulled ahead in the race. With each update, actors playing Barack Obama and Mitt Romney held a boxing match, throwing a slow motion punch as each gained a vote in the polls.
Shanice Harris, freshman photography major, said she attended the party because she wanted to watch the election coverage, but didn’t want to be alone. She came to enjoy the moment with friends.
“I did an absentee ballot a few weeks ago,” Harris said. “I hope my president is re-elected.”
At 8:45 p.m., the crowd gathered to watch a town hall debate lead by the improve actors. It was then that Romney brought out his binders full of women and Obama tried to answer the question of where he was really born.
“In a beautiful hospital,” the actor said.
The announcement of Obama’s victory brought the crowd to their feet, jumping and cheering for the president’s continued term. The final count was 332 electoral votes for President Obama and 206 electoral votes for opposing candidate Romney.
