More than 200 San Diego State students attended the Associated Students Rock the Vote presidential election viewing party on Tuesday night and waited for the results of the election.
Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota and Alaska were still undecided at 11:00 p.m on Nov. 8.
The race was tight throughout the day with the main focus placed on Florida, a swing state that was called for Donald Trump hours after the polls in the state closed.
FiveThirtyEight predicted Hillary Clinton would win Florida and North Carolina – two states with a total of 44 electoral votes. The website also predicted Clinton to beat Trump by 71.4 percent.
The New York Times forecasted approximately an 80 percent chance of a Clinton presidency, but on Tuesday Nov. 8, the votes showed different results.
By 10:50 p.m., Trump was ahead of Clinton with 264 electoral votes to Clinton’s 215 votes.
At the election viewing party in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, many students were surprised with the turnout of the race.
Aubrey Mitsch, communication sophomore, said she was nervous while waiting for the results to come in.
“I have been terrified almost the entire election,” Mitsch said. “It has been going back and forth and I don’t really want either opponent, but being Republican I want the Republican to win.”
Kim Johnson, an SDSU student, said she is repulsed by the results of this election as a Clinton supporter.
“I feel very strongly against him and I’ve seen that so much of our nation voted to support his ideas,” she said.
She said the results of this election, especially a Trump presidency, can affect her immensely.
“I’m a mess. There are things Trump wants to reverse and that’s going to affect me directly,” Johnson said. “My mom has cancer and can only afford her treatments and has only been able to stay alive because of what Obama has done. Knowing Trump wants to reverse that, I’m shaking.”
Lionel Olmos, criminal justice junior, said he expected the race to be tight because of how much separation it brought.
“There’s more clashes between people instead of like everyone has the right to vote and go out to polls,” he said.
Brennan Wehrle, entrepreneurship senior, said watching the results of the election made him wish he was more involved in the campaign process.
“I’m regretting my decisions to not be more involved in volunteering and campaigning, I’m very anxious to see the official results,” Wehrle said. “A lot of things we’ve accomplished with Obama in office and had to fight for are going to be repealed. It’s going to be a big step back.”
He said if Trump wins, the country will spend the next four years heading back to zero.
“If Trump does win, I’d like to be more involved locally,” Wehrle said. “I was taken aback with how little research I’d done on local candidates when I was voting today. I feel like even if the presidential election or the senate does not go my way, things could still change in the city.”
Clinton tweeted a picture of her hugging a girl with the caption “This team has so much to be proud of. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for everything.”
At 11:05 p.m., Clinton’s Campaign chair John Podesta took the stage at her headquarters to announce Clinton would not speak until every vote was counted and suggested people go home.
Trump’s last tweet, a picture of him watching the election, was posted at 6:48 p.m on Tuesday.
