Back in the SWING of things
Swing states secure 47th presidency for Trump
Back in the SWING
Swing states decide 2024 election
By MARIANNA SOURIALL
tered the 2024 presidential race competing for seven swing states — Pennsylvania, Georgia,
How are students voting on Texas Tech campus?
sealed the victory for Trump once they turned red.
Trump, according to the Associated Press, successfully won over Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia — all three states he lost to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
These also are the same three states that assisted in securing Trump’s first presidential term in 2016.
“In places like Georgia or North Carolina, you’ve had kind of major pendulum swings from kind of a centrist kind of view in politics, to a little bit to the left, and now back to the hard right,” said Erik Bucy, a strategic communications professor at Texas Tech and political researcher.
Since breaking the Blue Wall, Trump also is leading in Arizona and Nevada as of Wednesday; Bucy said the swing-state landslide can be attributed to local government rather than presidential campaigning.
“The Republicans are generally more organized than the Democrats in terms of winning consistently at the local level, state level and pushing their policies, state by state, through the courts, up to the Supreme Court,” Bucy said. “You know, they have a lot of discipline.”
Republicans in locallevel politics assist in moving the pendulum Bucy mentioned before.
“You’ve seen this in Michigan with militias,”
tion and government, seen it in places like Georgia, goes back and forth in North Carolina. And when that happens, the side that sees a little bit of opportunity or momentum, they’re going to get the voters out.”
Historically, Pennsylvania, which carries the most electoral votes out of the swing states with 19, has voted predominantly blue since 1992, with the exception of the 2016 election when Trump first entered office. In 2016, Trump also won over the Blue Wall. Many voters’ minds were made up before the election even started, Bucy said, however both candidates made deliberate efforts to campaign in all the swing states.
County at 7 p.m. Tuesday with a total of 121,722 Election Day votes cast, bringing voter turnout to 61 percent. These numbers surpassed voter turnout in 2020 by 11,514 voters.
Of the 198,548 registered voters in Lubbock County, 99,108 voted in the early-voting period. Results will be certified Nov. 18 for the final count.
Republican Jodey Arrington won the U.S.
When asked about how stud planned to vote for Texas Se
represent West Texas in the lower chamber of Congress.
Lubbock-based House District 84 is going to Republican Carl H. Tepper with 63 percent over Democrat Noah Lopez’s 36 percent. Temper will represent Lubbock’s district in Austin to the state legislator.
The Proposition A road bill passed with 53 percent of the vote, securing the use of a $103,000,000 bond for improving select
3 County Commissioner, beating Gilbert Flores by 910 votes. Shaw will act as commissioner for the North East precinct of Lubbock County, representing the district in Commissioners Court which oversees the budgetary and policy-making functions of the county government.
Shaw is the first Republican to hold the seat since 1980. All three Frenship ISD propositions passed, winning 56, 52 and 52 percent of the vote, respectively. The three bonds aim to prepare the school district for a projected 1,000 new students in the next five years.
The first will alter tax rates, lowering some taxpayer rates while raising others up to 11 percent in some cases. Bonds two and three approve the construction of two more elementary schools, acquisition of updated classroom technologies and the hiring of new faculty to maintain the district’s 1:1 student/ staff ratio.
Roosevelt ISD’s proposition failed by 122 votes, proposing a similar bond package for tax adjustments and investment in school infrastructure.
The Daily Toreador Pacemaker Finalist Print Copy
Makayla Perez First place sports photo
Marianna Souriall Eighth place feature story
Jacob Lujan Third place news/feature photo
Jacob Lujan First place feature photo
Jacob Lujan Third place sports news photo
Division I Pinnacle Awards
Graphic by Alessandra Rios
Harris concedes election, shares parting message
President Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to President-elect Donald
By TY KAPLAN SportS Editor
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech Wednesday afternoon at Howard University in Washington D.C. after President-elect Donald Trump surpassed the needed 270 electoral votes earlier in the morning.
While Harris did not make history as the first female president of the United States, she is the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, according to the Associated Press.
“My heart is full today, full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve,” Harris said during her concession speech on Wednesday. “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we
voted for. But hear me when I say, hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”
Harris served as President Joe Biden’s secondin-command throughout his presidential campaign and would have continued had he remained the Democratic candidate.
However, on July 21, Harris and the Democratic Party announced a shift in running parties, and Harris became the official Democratic nominee on Aug. 5, according to the Associated Press.
Unlike Trump, who announced he would run in the 2024 Presidential election in November 2022, according to CNN, Harris scraped together a campaign trail in fewer than four months — one that earned her 226 electoral votes.
“I am so proud of the race we ran and the way we ran it,” Harris said in her concession speech.
“Over the 107 days of this campaign, we have been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background, united by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America’s future.”
Following Biden’s withdrawal, Harris and the Democratic Party raised $81 million for her campaign in the first 24 hours of the announcement. The first-day sum was the largest in U.S. history, according to Harris’ team in an article by the Associated Press on July 22.
Her policies regarding human rights, specifically within the LGBTQ+ community, and for abortion rights were a driving force in the new voter
population she drew in. She appealed to a younger generation that prioritized these causes, with 50 percent of Gen Z votes opting for Harris, according to a survey conducted by NBC News on Sept. 4.
Despite Harris losing the popular vote, she said she remains hopeful the ideologies of her campaign will outlive her presidential candidacy.
More than that, she left her voters with one message: to shine, even in moments of dissapointment or despair.
“Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars,” Harris said. “I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.”
The DT Crossword: ‘Face Value’
walk away?”
59. 25 or 1?
62. Org. that assigns E, T or M to games
63. Place for hiding an
ace
64. Percy B. Shelley’s “___to the West Wind”
65. Old bird?
66. Unfortunate thing to be left on
67. Until now
DOWN
1. Actress Thurman on the poster of “Pulp Fiction”
2. Chilly region of Russia
iOS download
55. Swoosh, for Nike
56. Wryly amusing
57. The Joker’s response to “You think you can just steal from us and
3. Took a hard fall
4. Loyal
5. Ash holders
6. Collegiate sports grp. with Georgia and Texas
A&M
7. [Honk-mimi]
8. Instrument speaker, abbr.
9. Gets bored with
10. Like a lurking figure
11. Item with a history
14. Up in the air
15. Messy situation
18. Blackpink member with “Money” single
22. Guys
24. “Where did ___ wrong” (The Fray lyrics)
25. Wrangler or Renegade
26. Festive deer prefix
28. Clarice Starling’s agcy.
32. Competed in an election
34. Car openers
35. Toll
36. Response to “Parlez-vous Français?”
37. Worked at, while still a student
38. Walked away
39. “Fingers crossed!”
40. Spotted safari animal
42. Noodle, for example
43. Act like a dying star 44. Language suffix 46. Snakelike fish
47. Swears
48. Kingly
50. Wooden-soled shoe
52. lowa State in last week’s Tech football game
56. Self-important type
58. Broadcaster of “The Penguin”
60. Michael Jackson’s signature reduplicative sound
61. Cast a wide ___
VOTING
Following the Ballots
By MARIANNA SOURIALL Editor-in-ChiEf
Thousands of people head to the polls each election season to take part in their civil duty.
Leaving with blue and red “I Voted” stickers, citizens across America take pride in showcasing their little symbols of democracy, waiting to see the impact of their vote.
However, in recent years, the integrity of elections has fallen under scrutiny, a matter the Lubbock county elections office said they take seriously.
In efforts to safeguard the Hub City’s election, Roxzine Stinson said the election office follows a strict chain of command with multiple checkpoints to hold officials accountable throughout the process.
“We verify the seals when they come in the door, and they are under camera from the time they come in until they leave,” Stinson said. “Until the election is over, they’re under cameras.”
The cameras follow the votes from the voting room all the way to where the votes are counted, in the Lubbock County Elections Office.
A livestream is also publicly available on the county’s website for anyone interested in watching the process, a practice that took place for the first time this year, according to
Once the vote is cast, Stinson said the ballot is scanned into the electronic database, and the paper is turned into a sealed box.
“Those ballots are sealed with two locks and a seal,” Stinson said. “Those judges bring those ballots to our office for a central count. When they pull up here, we know which seals should be on that bag coming back on that night, so we verify those seals.”
Previously, Stinson said she’s only ever seen the outside seal broken, most likely due to movement of the boxes.
Everyone who touches the boxes, Stinson said, has to document their information as part of the chain of command in the elections office.
The votes are then tabulated for the county.
Then what?
-The county election results are sent to the state.
-Electors overview the votes before passing to congress -Congress performs final count
A playable online version of this crossword and its solution are available at dailytoreador.com/puzzles.
DAWN FRANKLIN/The Daily Toreador
Vice
Trump at 4:35 a.m. Nov. 6, 2024.
First-time voters participate in election
By ELIJAH FARIAS Staff Writer
Tuesday’s election site at the Texas Tech Student Union Building hosted many first-time voters casting their ballots for the 2024 Presidential Election.
Cindy Meyers, a sophomore psychology major from Dallas, said her process as a first-time voter was smooth, and she was able to register as a Lubbock resident. Meyers said she faced no difficulties trying to register in the county and thought the election line went by quickly.
“It was super easy — easier than I thought,” Meyers said. “I was kinda anxious, thinking, ‘Oh, did I forget anything, or am I doing it wrong?’ I had to check over and over again because it felt surreal to me, but it was really cool.”
For first-time voters, Meyers said it’s important to vote because it can affect a person’s future and
the choices made today will impact people’s lives.
“You’re young, and in the next five-to-seven years, you’re probably going to be at that stage where certain political choices are going to start affecting you more and more the older you get,” Meyers said. “So it’s best to make the decision that benefits you and affects you positively now.”
Kevin Loftus, a freshman business major from Dallas, said the reason he wanted to vote for the first time was because he was passionate about this election.
“I think it’s important to preserve freedom and democracy and ensure rights for all Americans,” Loftus said.
Charizma Hepler, a freshman animal science major from El Paso, said the reason she wanted to vote because she felt this election was important to her future.
“I feel like everyone has different opinions, and everyone’s should be heard,” Hepler said. “Even that one vote could change the whole thing, so if you have an opinion, talk about it.”
Hepler said she was expecting to have trouble voting in this election because she is not from Lubbock but thought the process was simple overall.
“They actually handed me a paper to check something off, and then they just switched it for me on their iPad. It took like five minutes,” Hepler said.
a first-time voter and first-generation student heavily influenced her to vote in this election.
She said voting was important to her because it gave a voice to people who cannot cast ballots.
“Everyone should vote because it’s going to affect everyone sooner or
later. More people need to realize how important it is to vote,” Lopez said. “As young and naive as we are, we might not think it’s very important, but in reality, we are the ones that are setting up our future generations.”
Students share voting motivations for 2024 election
By GRACE HAWKINS Staff Writer
Texas Tech students lined up to vote Tuesday afternoon at the Student Union Building, snapping photos with their “I Voted” stickers. For many student voters, some moments in their lives made voting more a necessity than an option.
Alex Einu, a sophomore medical laboratory science major from Dallas, said she feels like it’s her responsibility to vote. She
finds comfort in knowing that her vote is counting towards advocacy.
“I’ve always wanted to vote,” Einu said. “I’m really big on climate change and women’s rights, and that is something that I feel like, since COVID, hasn’t really been pushed for advocacy.”
Some students shared that after seeing their peers choose not to vote, they felt an even stronger responsibility to cast their ballots.
“I’ve been more moti-
vated to vote since noticing that a lot of people my age aren’t as interested in voting as I think they should be,” said Avery Barnes, a sophomore creative media industries major from Sachse.
Kylie Phillips, a senior journalism and political science major from San Diego, California, has been interested in politics since she was 12 years old and gained experience as an intern in Washington, D.C., over the summer.
“What pushed me to
vote in this election was all the drama over the summer,” Phillips said. “There was so much controversy and confusion surrounding this election, and there are some big topics on the ballot, like IVF and reproductive rights and the border, which I think is a big thing, especially since I lived 10 minutes from it (the border) at home.”
Family pressures influenced Ethan Hoddinger, a senior sports management major from Colleyville, to
vote in this year’s election.
“I voted in 2020, and I just felt like my voice was heard. So that’s why I voted this year,” Hoddinger said.
Arely Hernandez Trejo, a sophomore architecture major from Dallas, said she initially wasn’t going to vote until her friend, an immigrant from Mexico, encouraged her to do so on their behalf.
“I realized that I’m going to live in this world, too, so I feel like I need to
actually make a choice,” said Rhea Jackson, an electrical engineering major from Austin.
For some voters, this is their first time casting a ballot.
“Everything has been more expensive for me, personally,” said Tate Keyser, a personal finance junior from Dallas. “I wasn’t able to vote previously. This is my first time. So it was a big deal to me just to vote.”
Poll volunteers train for, manage Election Day voting stations
By ELIJAH FARIAS
work with the elections office, volunteers undergo training.
“This year, we had 12 hours of training. We had it broken down into two different days,” Stinson said.
Training usually happens 30 days before election season to give volunteers the right amount of time to know what to do.
Volunteers-in-training will learn what to do at the polls, what voters can wear, how equipment works and how to look at different types of voter registrations. Stinson said training primarily focuses on how volunteers can assist voters in ensuring their votes count.
“We try to explain to them they’re representing the county and both parties as a whole, but
mainly they are representing those voters to give them the right, the access and what they need to vote,” Stinson said.
Mika Waite, a volunteer lead clerk for early voting and Election Day, said he has helped at the Elections Office for one year after learning of the opportunity from a friend.
was a good-run operation, kind of see it and live it.”
Every day at voting polls, volunteers have different stations to manage and operate. Volunteers either work poll pads, controllers or scanners at election sites.
ROXZINE STINSON
COUNTY
ADMINISTRATOR ... but mainly they (poll volunteers) are representing those voters to give them the right, the access and what they need to vote.
“I just reached out and made contact and got into it,” Waite said. “I wanted to kind of prove to myself that the role at that Lubbock County Elections
“All those positions have to be manned and taken care of,” Waite said. “You have several things that you gotta know about the laws, policies and rules of Texas, so they put us through some pretty good training.”
Natalia Castillo, originally from Colombia and now a U.S. citizen, has lived in Lubbock for 25 years and said the reason she wanted to volunteer in the first place was to help the community during a time as significant as election season.
Castillo said the training process can be intense at times due to the amount of information, but she said she feels it is important to help people exercise their rights as voters.
“The reason why I am doing this is because I always wondered what this is about, how the process is and the significance of it. Now, I have an idea of what is entailed for people,” Castillo said.
Alexandra Lopez, a sophomore finance major from Dallas, said being
JACOB LUJAN/The Daily Toreador
On Tuesday, students were able to vote in the 2024 election at the Texas Tech Student Union Building. Wednesday morning, President
-elect Donald Trump secured a victory over Vice President Kamala Harris and will serve as the next president of the United States.
AVERY BARNES Sophomore creative media industries major from Sachse
KYLIE PHILLIPS Senior journalism and political science major from San Diego, California
ETHAN HODDINGER Senior sports management major from Colleyville
TATE KEYSER Junior personal finance major from Dallas
ARELY HERNANDEZ TREJO Sophomore architecture major from Dallas RHEA JACKSON Electrical engineering major from Austin
ALEX EINU Sohomore medical laboratory science major from Dallas
The Lubbock County Elections Office calls for volunteers every election season to help with polling and voters.
Roxzine Stinson, elec -
Staff Writer tions administrator at the Lubbock County Elections Office, said those who wanted to volunteer for the process contacted the office and expressed interest in working. Once accepted through one of the three agencies that
SAVANNAH
PROJECTIONS
Elections prone to unpredictable result times
By NOAH DAVILA Staff Writer
Tuesday evening marked the end of both the 2024 election cycle and the highly contentious battle between presidential nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
The Associated Press called the election in Trump’s favor at 4:35 a.m. CST Wednesday, making this election the quickest call since Trump’s 2016 victory, largely due to his domination of swing states in both races and an expedited mail-in counting process in 2024’s election.
Election results in more recent memory have not been quite so prompt. Notably, the 2020 race between Trump and President Joe Biden lasted four days before a winner was called, and formal voting by the Electoral College did not take place until over a month later.
This discrepancy raises the question of what factors contribute to the delay, or lack thereof, in announcing election results both local and national.
Historically, most media outlets do not bring actual day-of results, but instead estimate based on statistics and probability.
“The results are not official for the county until after the commissioners canvass the results Nov. 18,” said Lubbock County Election Administrator Roxzine Stinson.
Once canvassed or approved by the Lubbock County Commissioner’s Court, county election results will then be sent to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for final approval, along with all other counties, to be certified by the state.
This is a long process, with every county having different estimated wait times for votes, affected by the size of voter turnout, number of precincts within a county, number of mail-in ballots and how many voters used early voting or voting drop boxes.
“Every county, every state doesn’t have the same system,” said Texas Tech professor of innovation, journalism and information Lyombe Eko. “They don’t have the same machines, and
so the efficiency of vote counting is not uniform. They call the Postal Service ‘Snail Mail,’ so when mail-in voting puts this onus on the postage system, the chances of getting the result day-of is diminished.”
Past the county level, every state has its own unique votecounting practices and safeguards, many of which have doubled down their efforts to ensure a fair and trustworthy election in the face of growing frustration with the process. This was seen in attacks on poll workers, such as the elderly man who was assaulted in Bexar County for asking a voter to remove a partisan hat while voting.
Elections must not just be fair, they must seem fair. We are in a situation where people are always suspicious, always looking for a conspiracy.
are in a situation where people are always suspicious, always looking for a conspiracy. No county wants to be thought of as corrupt, so they will double- and triple-check their numbers. This puts a lot of pressure on our poll workers, volunteers who are just trying to make sure the democratic process of voting is carried out smoothly.”
LYOMBE EKO
TEXAS TECH PROFESSOR OF INNOVATION, JOURNALISM AND INFORMATION
Because producing official election results is tedious and timeconsuming, news organizations have taken to determining their own election results using a ‘Decision Desk,’ a board of editors, journalists and statisticians who analyze polling data as it is made available.
“Elections must not just be fair, they must seem fair,” Eko said. “We
“Media tries to get their info from the Secretary of State to be as accurate as possible, but
they are still making predictions,” Eko said. “They are highly trained and usually right, but some can jump the gun. Statistics is not an exact science. It’s a study of probability. They deal in likelihood and margins of error.”
While generally reliable, this practice can be swayed by the desires of the media organization to break news and be the first to declare a winner for their eager viewership, or even by the political beliefs of members at the decision desk.
“A lot of the time, the rush to be first trumps the need to be fair and accurate,” Eko said. “They tend to look at polling with a jaundiced eye, so to speak — rose-colored glasses. They interpret polls, they look at something in the numbers that support their side.”
While this risk of skewing data is in line with the growing political divide in the United States, these kinds of errors in judgment are nothing new.
“One of the most fascinating stories of Ameri -
can elections was the Chicago Tribune declaring ‘Dewey Defeats Truman,’” Eko said. “The Tribune was a Republican paper so sure that their candidate Dewey would defeat the democrat Truman, their internal polling and decision desk had concluded that there was no way Truman would win. They printed their headline that night, and when they woke up in the morning they found it had been completely wrong. The Chicago Tribune has never recovered from that blunder.”
While viewers are often anxious to see results and politicians and media are willing to provide, headlines are not official and are subject to the same distortion as all political coverage.
“My advice is to be patient,” Eko said. “If I see some polling information or prediction, I will go to the Secretary of State website and check how they came to this conclusion. We have the privilege to look things up and fact-check what we are told.”
@NoahDavDT