Hundreds of students waited upwards of an hour in a line snaking through Robert Purcell Community Center — Cornell’s sole polling place — underscoring a collective sense of urgency among young voters this Election Day.
The Sun conducted exit polling outside RPCC, finding that 27 out of 28 students voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Many students vocalized reproductive rights as a top concern on the ballot, followed by issues including climate change, the economy and immigration policies.
“It’s really important now especially because Roe v. Wade was overturned recently and rights are being stripped away,” said Brendan Lam ’25, a first-time voter from California. “The congressional district here is hotly contested, so it felt like my vote would be more useful here than in California.”
Tae Kyu Lee ’26, a first-time voter from New York City, expressed social policies and human rights as a leading concern.
“A lot of people’s identities are at risk if [former President Donald] Trump wins, including my own or people I’m friends with and people that I care about,” Lee said.
Poll workers at RPCC reminded students that the 2024 New York State ballot was two-sided. In addition to candidates appearing on the front of the ballot, voters also had the opportunity to flip their ballots to vote on Proposal 1.
The proposal, which passed with overwhelming support, will amend Article I, Section 11 of the Bill of Rights to the New York State Constitution to expand on current protections against discrimination on the basis of race and religion. This will effectively protect access to abortion, LGBTQIA+ rights and other minority issues in New York State.
For many students, this Election Day marked their first time being able to vote.
Ezra Mellor ’28 said that he felt “a bit nervous” voting for the first time. Mellor decided to register in Tompkins County in October because the competitive district “could go either way.”
“I was thinking about my sister when I was making my choice,” Mellor said. “Obviously I care a lot for her, and I would want her to have full autonomy over her body.”
Student groups campaigned to register students to vote in Tompkins County ahead of the election due to the close house race between Josh Riley (D-N.Y.) and Marcus Molinaro (R-N.Y.). Riley eked out a victory by just 3.6 percentage points.
Xolani Bonnet ’28, a first-time voter from New York City, also chose to register in Ithaca.
“New York City is pretty deep blue, so I wanted to vote here because I thought it would make more of a difference,” Bonnet said.
Cornell Votes — a non-partisan student-led organization that aims to increase voter registration — tabled between RPCC and Donlon Hall. Throughout the day, tablers encouraged students to head to the polls and greeted voters with an “I Voted” photobooth and custom stickers.
Bransen Fitzwater ’28, a first-time voter and new member of Cornell Votes, called his experience registering students to vote “really fulfilling.”
“Some people have never gone out to vote,” Fitzwater said. “You see people smile, they’re happy to vote, and we’re happy to help them do that. Now, in the last few final days, we’ve switched over to getting people out to vote — early voting, in-person voting — and it’s been really successful so far.”
Emma Cohen ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].