Student jets to Jersey to complete civic duty
By ERIN LaRUFFA
Associate News Editor
At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, Notre Dame junior Kelly Donnelly decided to fly half way across the country to vote.
"I didn't like the idea of missing this election, it being so close and all," Donnelly said from her home in Edison, N.J. "If I didn't come, it was something I would regret for the rest of my life."
Donnelly purchased her ticket at 2 a.m., and had to wake up at 4 a.m. to make her 6 a.m. flight.
Although she had discussed the plan with her mother, no one in her family knew definitely that she was coming. Donnelly arrived in New York's LaGuardia airport at 9:30 a.m. She took a train to her hometown and called her surprised grandmother for a ride the rest of the way home.
"They all think that it's great that I came home just to vote," Donnelly said about her family. She added she believes that voting is important enough to be worth spending money for a plane ticket and missing her classes.
Most of Donnelly's generation, however, would not make such a sacrifice. In fact, less than 1/3 or 32 percent, of 18 to 24-year olds voted in the 1996 presidential election.
"If everyone thinks that their vote doesn't matter, nothing is ever going to get done," Donnelly said. "You're giving up the right to have a voice."
A major motivation behind Donnelly's decision to fly home was the closeness of the presidential race in New Jersey.
"Gore's ahead, but he's only ahead by the margin of error," Donnelly said, in regards to pre-election polls in her state.
Although she agreed with much of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader's environmental and other policies, Donnelly said she decided to vote for the Gore/Lieberman ticket because the race was so close between Bush and Gore.
All News Stories for Wednesday, November 8, 2000
