Liberty delivers votes by the busload

Liberty senior Caleb Mast, chairman of the College Republican club at Liberty University, worked past 4 a.m. Tuesday putting up campaign signs on campus and at Heritage Elementary School.

He returned to Heritage — the voting site for on-campus Liberty students — by 6:45 a.m. to greet student voters arriving by the busload.

As many as 3,200 LU students were eligible to vote. Mast said he kept an unofficial tally at Heritage and counted upwards of 800 student voters when he left at 5 p.m. More than 2,300 votes were cast at the precinct altogether.

To encourage a high turnout, Liberty cancelled classes and ran buses between the campus and the voting precinct every few minutes. The school did not keep track of how many students went to the polls, said Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.

The precinct reached its peak crowd just past noon. House of Delegates candidates Shannon Valentine and Scott Garrett shook hands with voters, while Falwell, who voted that morning in Bedford County, greeted students.

“I need to get me a dorm room on campus so I can vote in the city,” Falwell said jokingly, and then struck a serious note on why he encouraged students to vote.

“I told the students yesterday the turnout is more important than who wins or loses,” he said.

“It makes the city take seriously issues that impact the students.”

Liberty’s first concerted voter registration drive took place last fall, when about 4,000 students registered to vote in the presidential election. This fall, as many as 1,700 additional students registered.

Liberty’s initiative to bring students to the polls has elicited mixed reactions from city residents. Falwell responded to criticism by saying many college students across the country vote where they go to school, rather than in their hometowns.

“The decisions made by local politicians have more impact (on the students) in cities where they attend school than it does in the municipalities where their parents live,” he said.

Walter Fore and other Democratic Party volunteers handed out sample ballots that suggested people should vote for Democrats.

“I want to let people know Democrats vote here, too,“ Fore said. “This is not a precinct for Liberty students only.”

The university’s presence was visible throughout the day.

Around 11 a.m., members from Liberty’s College Republican club pulled up to Heritage in a white pickup truck, waving American flags. The bed of the truck carried a jumbo elephant made of chicken wire and duct tape and covered with Republican bumper stickers.

For some students, Election Day meant a chance to sleep in, catch up on homework or enjoy the crisp autumn weather.

Sophomore Allison Braun said she planned to spend her day catching up on homework and taking advantage of open dorms — a rare event when the single-sex dormitories are open to the opposite gender.

“That’s like one of the highlights of the semester,” Braun said of open dorms.

Braun said voting was a civic duty.

“As Liberty students, it’s really important to vote locally because it affects us all year long,” she said.

LU student Eddie Brown of Texas registered for last year’s presidential election, and Tiffany Orne of Williamsburg registered just before the fall deadline.

For Brown, the vote came down to fiscal conservatism and for Orne, it was social issues. Both voted to have a voice in local government.

“Since I do live here and plan on being her possible for graduate school and past that, it’s important for my voice to be heard,” Brown said.