The countdown to the end of history’s most contentious election began at the stroke of midnight. Hundreds of volunteers across the nation had been trained to operate the booths of the polling stations, ensuring that each vote counted.
Amira Rachouh, senior at Ramapo College, spent the early hours of Nov. 8 with her eyes glued to her textbooks as she tried to absorb as much material as possible before her back-to-back exams later that day.
Unlike other college students, Rachouh didn’t worry about driving home that day to vote in her district. She had scribbled her information on a registration form a few weeks earlier and requested a mail-in-ballot that she completed days before the election.
It was the first time voting in any election for …show more content…
Like clockwork, cheers emerged from down the hall, as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer would announce the latest poll results every 45 minutes.
“It just progressed and as time kept going, people kept coming back to me. He won this state. He won that state. He won Florida,” said Rachouh. “It got to a point where it was like Hillary can’t win.”
She clocked out of work well before the official projection was made. Instead of trudging through the cool weather back to her apartment, Rachouh made a right turn toward the computer lab of E-Wing to work on her paper due the next day. As her fingers danced across the grimy keyboard, strings of words appeared on the smudgy computer screen.
“I was tired, sad, and in awe,” said Rachouh. “I kind of came to the fact that he’s going to win and Hilary’s not going to win these few states that are coming up.”
Two other students pulling an all-nighter in the computer lab had pulled up the CNN livestream. The results continued to come in and by 2:30 AM, the CNN news team projected that Trump would be the winner of the 2016
Amira Rachouh, senior at Ramapo College, spent the early hours of Nov. 8 with her eyes glued to her textbooks as she tried to absorb as much material as possible before her back-to-back exams later that day.
Unlike other college students, Rachouh didn’t worry about driving home that day to vote in her district. She had scribbled her information on a registration form a few weeks earlier and requested a mail-in-ballot that she completed days before the election.
It was the first time voting in any election for …show more content…
Like clockwork, cheers emerged from down the hall, as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer would announce the latest poll results every 45 minutes.
“It just progressed and as time kept going, people kept coming back to me. He won this state. He won that state. He won Florida,” said Rachouh. “It got to a point where it was like Hillary can’t win.”
She clocked out of work well before the official projection was made. Instead of trudging through the cool weather back to her apartment, Rachouh made a right turn toward the computer lab of E-Wing to work on her paper due the next day. As her fingers danced across the grimy keyboard, strings of words appeared on the smudgy computer screen.
“I was tired, sad, and in awe,” said Rachouh. “I kind of came to the fact that he’s going to win and Hilary’s not going to win these few states that are coming up.”
Two other students pulling an all-nighter in the computer lab had pulled up the CNN livestream. The results continued to come in and by 2:30 AM, the CNN news team projected that Trump would be the winner of the 2016