Florida Avenue Residence Halls: The least crowded polling place on campus

James Hoeck

Political campaign signs placed outside of the entrance of FAR, the least-crowded polling location, on Nov. 8.

By Layli Nazarova, Staff Writer

One of the many polling stations was located in the Florida Avenue Residence Halls. Starting from 6 a.m. the doors of Oglesby Hall lounge were open for all voters. FAR became the least crowded polling station on campus on Election Day.

During lunchtime, while hundreds of people were waiting in lines at the ARC and Illini Union for more than an hour, FAR was relatively empty. 

“It was super easy to vote,” said Matthew Halliman, junior in LAS. “I just walked right in. There is no line. I just got my ballot and voted.”

Since this location is one of the most remote, in the morning nearly all voters were the residents of the FAR and PAR Residence Halls or people who live in ​​the adjacent area. 

“Honestly, I read it on The Daily Illini that they have a polling location here at FAR,” said Nethra Yuvaraj, freshman in LAS. “I live nearby, so I decided that it will be convenient.” 

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Closer to the evening the situation changed, instead of the empty hall the voters had to wait in line. Voters mentioned that it was moving quickly, compared to other polling places. 

“I got here at 6:30 and I think like I voted at 6:45, so I waited only about 15 minutes,” said Zoë Fieweger, senior in LAS. 

According to Fieweger, such a quick and smooth process of voting may be the merit of the employees of the polling station. 

“They seemed to know that most people here weren’t registered to vote here. So, it was nice that they knew how to take my stuff and get it all ready,” Fieweger said.

 

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