By Jillian McLaughlin

Kalamazoo, MI–Champagne flowed, clothes disappeared and yelling endured throughout the night of November 4 as Barack Obama was announced the 44th president of the United States. The unlikely election of America’s first African-American president (and also the first president to hail from Hawaii, a part of history that few in the press are marveling) sparked mixed feelings–surprise, relief, contemplation and utter elation. Voter turnout is believed to be hovering around 62%, the highest since the election that made John F. Kennedy the first Roman Catholic Chief Executive.
The quad filled with students after more than 150 crowded into Hicks Center to watch the election results on the big-screen, according to Kate Leishman, Assistant Director of Student Activities. The crowd of students, overwhelmingly Obama supporters, whooped and cheered, “Yes we can, yes we can,” as scores of students streaked the quad.
Two hundred and sixty new voters registered on campus this fall, according to K Votes!, a non-partisan effort undertaken to encourage voting among college students. Alex Morgan, a campus organizer for the Obama campaign, noted a 20% increase in voter turnout at Western Michigan University.
After a flurry of pre-election activity with many students canvassing for Barack Obama and congressional candidate Don Cooney, the campus celebrated, with many classes canceled or half-full on Wednesday.
Alex Morgan says Obama’s victory feels unreal, “I’ve woken up the past few days and I still feel like I
should be going out and knock on doors.”
Congressional candidate Don Cooney was unsuccessful at the polls with Fred Upton winning another term in the House of Representatives.
Carl Levin was returned to his Senate seat by a sizeable margin, medical marijuana passed, and stem cell research had a similar victory at the polls.
Michigan unseated California as the flaming liberal of the liberals. Proposition 8 passed in California, amending the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.