I’ve been asked by a number of students today about whether or not their registration went through with the authorities.

Students have reported not receiving voter identification cards in the mail, even though they registered before the March deadline. Most have reported sending in their registration with the Penn Democrats.

TO CLARIFY: YOU DO NOT NEED A VOTER ID CARD TO VOTE; JUST PRESENT ID.

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When I asked College 2007 alumnus David Back, who is running the polling station in Harrison College House, why Republicans are turning out to vote today despite their party’s lack of a contested primary, he answered, “I have no idea.”

It would be unfair to say that no Republicans are turning out. As of 11:25 am, two of the 102 voters who had turned out at that polling station were Republicans.

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Checking in from Woodland Presbyterian Church at 42nd and Pine Streets. Poll workers here tell me that voter turnout is already much higher than normal.

By 10:30, there had been about 85 voters at the polling place. As expected, turnout is especially high among students and democrats. According to one worker, it usually takes until 5:00 for the democrat turnout to get as high as it usually is.

Republicans aren’t expected to show up in force and the only one I encountered was an elderly woman. Still, one poll worker told me that he expects some republicans to show up and show support for Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Mike Huckabee, who are both still on the ballot in PA.

Also, 25 students have already shown up to vote here, compared to about 5 at this time on a typical primary. “We usually don’t get that many students, but this is a polarizing election,” said election judge Tom Mervine.

Jonathan Fuchs, a recent transfer to Penn, cast his vote for Obama, citing his idealism and rhetoric in supporting him.

Penn student Braden Lepisto chose Obama because “he seems intelligent and confident, and can do a better job than Hillary.” As for the other offices up for grabs, Lepisto admitted that he “didn’t know anything about” them, and “they got some free votes.”

Not much else to report here: the machines are working fine and the only disturbance of the morning consisted of a group of high school girls singing and dancing outside of the church for a few minutes, in support of Obama.

Don’t forget to go out and vote, there’s no line right now if you’re voting down here!

Last night, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) spoke to a crowded Palestra in the last rally in PA before election day (which is today…so go vote).

The crowd for the rally spanned past Franklin Field, and around to the Archeology Museum. That’s about two blocks of people, for our non-Penn readers. Among that crowd were students, labor unions (IUPAT, Trans. Union, etc), teachers (AFT), and many a random Philly for Hillary supporter.

The Penn Band and various a cappella groups warmed up the crowd, and then the congressmen and congresswomen were introduced.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11th), Rep. Allyson Schwartz (Pa.-13th), and Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.-4th) warmed up the crowd for the Clintons (and another round of politicos).
Jones got the crowd roaring with her calls to “step up, PA.”

Then, Mayor Michael Nutter, Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea Clinton, and fmr. President Bill Clinton stepped onto the stage. Each person spoke, in that order, and introduced the person following. Nutter seemingly came out of his skin firing up the arena, saying, “We might be at the Palestra, but we ain’t playin’.”
Typically, Nutter is known to be reserved and cautious, but not last night.

Rendell was equally energetic and fiery, talking up the benefits of the Clinton administration in the city when he was mayor in the ’90s.

Both Rendell and Nutter are Penn alumni.

Chelsea maintained that her mother would be a better president than her father, and defined her as “more progressive and more prepared” than Bill Clinton was when he became the president in 1992. As Chelsea handed the microphone to her father, I could see Bill hug and whisper “I love you so much” into Chelsea’s ear.

I love family moments, especially in the midst of a brutal political fight.

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Today is the highly-anticipated Pennsylvania primary. Across the state, polls opened at 7 a.m. and will remain open until 8 p.m.

If you’re registered to vote in Pennsylvania, make sure to get out to your polling place today! The DP made an interactive map of campus polling locations.

Going into today’s primaries, Clinton has approximately a 6-point lead in the polls, according to RealClearPolitics averages. She will be in Philadelphia tonight for her election results-watching party downtown. Obama, however, will leave the state this evening to head to a rally in Evansville, Indiana.

At this point, the Obama campaign still maintains that he is the “underdog” in the state, and it doesn’t seem like expectations for an Obama victory are high. However, with the way things have gone so far this primary season, anything could happen.

Keep checking back here today for updated information about the election. The DP will follow both campaigns as well as student activity here on campus.

Happy Primary Day!

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will hold a rally at the Palestra tomorrow night, her campaign announced today.

The event will begin at 10 p.m. and doors open at 8 p.m. Former President Bill Clinton is also scheduled to appear at the rally, which is free and open to the public.

The event marks a final push for supporters before Pennsylvanians vote in Tuesday’s primary. After campaigning in the Philadelphia region at the end of last week, both Clinton and her opponent, Barack Obama — who held a rally in Philadelphia that attracted a crowd of 35,000 Friday — the two have criss-crossed the state over the weekend. Obama has campaigned by train and Clinton has held a series of rallies.

Update: Chelsea Clinton will also appear at the rally.

Can Obama draw crowds the size of baseball games and rock concerts for a 20-minute speech?

Apparently, “yes he can”…

Despite the heat, Philadelphia residents came out in record numbers to hear Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speak on Independence Mall last night. According to Obama’s website, the rally drew a crowd of 35,000.

Supporters waited in line for hours in the 80-degree heat to get a spot at the rally. The first man in line, we heard, had been waiting since 7:30 p.m. the previous night.

Members of the press were allowed into the rally area at around 5 p.m., and according to campaign volunteers, Obama was scheduled to speak at around 8 p.m. While the crowd filled the field — and the entire space from the National Constitution Center to Independence Hall — a performance by Black Eyed Peas’ frontman Will.i.am, who wrote the song, “Yes We Can”, kept audience members entertained.
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After a bit of a mix-up with my ticket to the fourth and final Pennsylvania episode of “The Colbert Report,” I was offered the chance to watch the taping of the show from the side of the stage — an opportunity I was certainly not going to turn down.

I arrived outside Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theatre at 6:15p.m., where I discovered that people started lining up today around 3 p.m. I met up with Renata Luczak from Comedy Central and went into the back of Zellerbach, where I waited in a room with long tables for the press, drinks, and snacks — boxes of sugary (and some healthy) cereals, Oreos, Kudos bars, etc. We heard chants of “Yes We Can!” from the people waiting upstairs to get into the theater, and people started getting frustrated and booing when they were told they couldn’t come into the theater yet.

I sat down and ate some Oreos, and as soon as the rehearsal was over (and “Ben Franklin” –possibly my new hero — walked into the room I was in), Renata took me backstage, then we walked out onto the stage and into the theater. She found me a place to stand off to the side, and said I could stay there to watch the taping. I could see the whole audience as well as what was going on onstage — it was very cool.

The audience started filing into the theater and after a stand-up comic spoke, Colbert came onstage and answered a few questions from the audience.

And soon afterwards, the show began.

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