The New Hampshire Institute of Politics invited students to a live viewing of the Presidential Election on Election Night, last Tuesday Nov. 5. Students participated in an engaged viewing of the election results, anticipating the electoral votes that would determine the 47th President of the United States.
At 8 P.M. last Tuesday night, Saint Anselm’s Politics Department invited students and community members to the NHIOP auditorium for a live “watch party” of the widely anticipated 2024 Presidential election for an unbiased viewing.
Politics major Ellie Duffin ’25 serves as the Student Chair of the NHIOP Ambassador program, and her role in the program led to an important participation in the election watch party. Overseeing the event’s particulars, Duffin and other co-chairs of the program worked together to put on an engaging event for students.
“Other co-chairs and I helped put together a playlist and games with raffles for election-related events this year,” Duffin said. Keeping students engaged was crucial for a successful and beneficial watch-party, and “we oversaw the attendance of fellow ambassadors, ordered Pizza Market, made a playlist, and put together games and activities,” one of the activities being “blank Electoral College maps for students to predict the result, with prizes for any winners,” Duffin remarked.
The NHIOP’s invitation recruited an impressive student turnout, as Duffin shared “we had a full house of Saint Anselm students and international students with the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire.” The addition of international students at the viewing was “really great,” Duffin said, and it was interesting to “interact with international students who were curious to learn about the presidential election process in the U.S.”
Politics extends far beyond the borders of the United States, and the international students participating at the event were eager to understand and engage in the country’s civic duties in voting and electoral processes.
Student turnout also skewed across classes, but Duffin said that “there were definitely more underclassmen than upperclassmen at the watch party,” and “we noticed a similar pattern at our debate watch parties.” NHIOP has hosted similar watch parties, one of which was a live viewing of the first presidential debate on Sept. 10.
To further engagement and keep students updated on the electoral votes, “we had a blank whiteboard with the Electoral College on it and colored itt in red or blue as each state was called,” Duffin shared, and “with international students present, many students were explaining the Electoral College and swing states to the students from the World Affairs Council.”
Along with the presidential race, “students were also following the New Hampshire races for governor and congress closely,” Duffin said, and the election resulted with Kelly Ayotte elected as governor of New Hampshire, defeating her Democratic opponent, Joyce Craig.
With political polarization and tensions at a high across the country, the opposite was said regarding the students’ energy at the watch party. “It was super lively,” Duffin said, “with lots of discussions between students about their predictions as to how the election was going to go.” Regardless of political beliefs, students were able to come together productively to discuss their thoughts and predictions of the election results.
“Even though national politics is extremely divided today, there wasn’t any tension between students,” Duffin explained. With an aim to be non-partisan and unbiased, all events with the NHIOP Ambassador Program are held “with intentions of curating civic engagement and respectfully discussing our mutual interests in politics,” Duffin said.
“Although everyone there was super invested in the election and definitely nervous, students do a very good job at remaining non-partisan and respecting each other’s opinions,” Duffin shared. Finding middle ground in a time when national politics stir frigid tension can prove to be a difficult endeavor, but Saint Anselm provides an opportunity for students to come together for their mutual interest in their country’s democratic processes.
“I think it’s super important for people of different beliefs to share in election viewing,” Duffin shared, while recognizing the extreme polarization the country currently faces. “I think the U.S. is so polarized right now due to our tendencies to isolate ourselves with people and sources who validate and confirm our pre-existing opinions-especially on social media,” Duffin said, which is a habit shared mutually by people on all sides of the political spectrum.
The NHIOP watch party event not only gave students an outlet to see the election results live, but also gave students an outlet to look past division and find a sense of unity. “The student body and country in general feel a lot less divided when we can physically share spaces with those we disagree with,” Duffin shared.
Regardless of political affiliation, students of Saint Anselm, as well as other community members, were able to look past their differences and come together in a unified and non-partisan participation of the 2024 Presidential Election watch party.