This story is part of Spotlight PA’s live Election Day coverage. A team of Spotlight PA reporters will fan out across the state to talk to voters, attend candidate events, and bring you the latest on how the election is proceeding. As always, please donate to Spotlight PA if you appreciate this vital reporting.
Voters at Penn State’s University Park campus slowly filed into the HUB-Robeson Center, asking PSU Votes — a nonpartisan university-run organization — for help finding their polling place or where to return their mail ballot.
Meanwhile, students operating tables for the campus Democrats and Republicans promoted their respective political parties and candidates.
Ryan Klein, 21, serves as president of the Penn State College Republicans and voted in person for former President Donald Trump early Tuesday morning. This is the first presidential election Klein, who grew up in Reading, has voted in, and he said the economy motivated his decision to support Republicans — including Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate and U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson — down the ballot.
“Prices are extremely high. Rent, gas, groceries — these things are essential to everyday American life,” Klein said. “They’re higher than they were under the Trump administration, and I think it’s a direct result of bad policy. I feel it’s really important to get the right people in the right offices.”
Nearby, 22-year-old Baybars Charkas, president of the Penn State College Democrats, was stationed at a table promoting their candidates and passing out merch.
Charkas was fourth in line to vote at his downtown polling place Tuesday morning. He planned to attend a campaign event for state Rep. Paul Takac tonight, but first, he had to finish an essay due this afternoon.
“You don’t stop being a student,” he said.
Mobilizing voters on Penn State’s University Park campus could be pivotal for both presidential campaigns, though students living on Penn State’s campus have consistently registered but not voted in recent election cycles.
Voters in Centre County’s Precinct 24 (located at Penn State’s HUB) had 36% turnout in the 2016 presidential election, 24% turnout in the 2020 presidential election, but just 15% turnout in the 2022 midterm elections, according to data from Centre County Elections. Registrations for this precinct more than doubled between 2016 and 2020.
As of Nov. 4, there were 21,629 registered voters between the ages of 18 and 24 in Centre County, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of State. Of those, 9,635 were Democrats, and 6,628 were Republicans.
