Replacing the sights and sounds of loud cheers, balloons and conversations about the election were about 40 people seated in small pockets in the Maintenance Shop of the Memorial Union.

“I’m not too upset about the turnout,” said president of the Political Science Club Jennifer Perkins. “It’s a Tuesday night and there are several other meetings as well as night classes.”

People came in from the damp night, some to sit and watch the election returns and others to enjoy the ambiance of the M-Shop.

Shannon Swenson, a sophomore in the College of Design, said he voted even though he did not keep up with the election process. Swenson said it will not matter if President Bill Clinton is re-elected because the republicans will probably control Congress. He voted for Clinton.

Since he does not have a television to watch the debates, Swenson said it was difficult for him to know all the issues.

“I can’t claim to have knowledge on something I know nothing about,” he said.

Sophomore Sarah Sunderman said she wanted to vote, but did not get the chance. “I feel pretty shi..y about it,” she said.

“I say I’m Republican, but that’s mainly just my parents,” Sunderman said.

“They [parents] didn’t really talk about [voting] much,” she said.

A recent issue that Sunderman said she knew about was the recent legislation about partial birth abortions.

“It’s a freedom of choice thing,” Swenson said.

Sunderman said her family went to church 30 miles away from home to emphasize the strong roots of her family’s Republican conviction.

Perkins sees this as a problem with families in America and the reason many young people do not learn more about the issues in the political process.

“You need to teach your children to be civically responsible,” she said.

“Just like I heard on NPR the other day, if you take your kids to work and you take your kids to church, why not take them with you when you vote?”

Sophomore Sean Collier said he voted. Collier, an agricultural education major, had just finished an exam and decided to stop in to see the results.

“I thought there’d be a few more people in here because of the free pop and snacks,” he said. Collier mirrored the sentiment of other students in the room.

“There were some [political] races I didn’t know about so I just voted party affiliation. He voted for Clinton.

Many people in the M-Shop arrived from 8:00 p.m. to 8:30.

Several people believed the turnout would be low because everyone found out the winner of the presidential election shortly after 8:00 p.m.

“I was surfing the net around 7:45 and it said Clinton had won,” Collier said.

Perkins said people are apathetic enough about voting and showing early returns on television does not help the battle cry of “Rock the Vote.”

“I don’t think they should project anything,” she said. “It’s a form of manipulation whether it is conscious or not.

“When [people] see a projected landslide they give up.”

Perkins said elections should be held on non-working days or over two days. It needs to be more accessible, she said.

“People who don’t have cars, who live in the inner city or are homeless” need to get out and vote.