Ole Miss students, faculty and staff braced themselves for the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Groups and residence halls hosted watch parties on and off campus.
Student Libby Summer patiently waited outside the courtyard of Residence Hall 2 and 3 along with 40 other students at the Pajamas and Politics watch party.
“I’m super scared,” Summer, who is from Madison, said. “Super scared, like moving to another country if Hillary wins.”
Summer was attending the watch party with friend Lauren James, who is also from Madison. Together, the two watched as the ballots came in showing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both running a tight race.
“It’s going to be really close,” James said. “I personally don’t want either one of them in office, but if I had to choose, I would much rather Donald Trump be in there than Hillary Clinton.”
Overlooking the watch party was James Duncan, a security guard from the University Police Department.
“I’m just here to make sure everyone here is safe,” Duncan said. “I can’t really say who is going to win, but from what I can tell it’s going to be pretty close.”
At Deupree Hall, students pre-gamed with pizza and cupcakes.
Senior and first-time voter Josh Tucker said it was exciting to be a part of the election.
“I think that the most important issue is probably going to be the Supreme Court justice decision,” Tucker said. “We know that President Obama has nominated Judge Garland, and the Senate has yet to approve his nomination. It will be up to the next president to decide who that Supreme Court judge should be.”
Ole Miss Senior Tyler Flynn said no matter what happens, he wants to see America unified.
“For me personally, it does not necessarily mean a lot to me,” Flynn said. “What I want to see is unity, which is what we probably will not see in this election.”
Flynn said his next concern is the economy.
Ole Miss senior Rimen Singh said he felt proud to vote for the first time.
“I’m actually going to graduate this year, hopefully, and I have never been big on graduations, so this will probably be the proudest moment of the year for me,” Singh said.
Singh said he thinks there are many issues Americans should be concerned with, but probably the most important is the economy.
“More people need to have more wealth,” Singh said. “There have been arguments over wealth distribution, and I think that the more wealth is distributed the more people have to spend and the more they can buy. It will help everyone in the long run.”
