For Eastern student Chris Sodergren-Baar, election night has always been a big deal. The second Tuesday of November is like a holiday at the Sodergren-Baar house.

The family orders dinner and gathers around the television to watch election results.

The 1992 election is one of Sodergren-Baar’s favorite childhood memories. He remembers the Democratic National Convention, seeing political magazines and reading stories featuring Bill Clinton.

Although he was young, the 8-year-old saw Clinton as a positive change for America.

Sodergren-Baar’s mother, Sandra, was active in politics when she was growing up.

She campaigned for Jimmy Carter when she was in college and was always active in the Democratic Party, Sodergren-Baar said.

“She taught me how to care about politics and learn politics,” he said.

Sodergren-Baar, from Dixon, became personally involved with politics in the 2000 election even thought he was only 16 and couldn’t vote.

And now the senior political science major is waist-high in the general election.

Sodergren-Baar is the precinct committeeman for the 16th precinct. He’s the head representative for the Democratic Party of his precinct. His main job is to inform people about the democratic candidates.

Sodergren-Baar ran for office in March during the primary election.

He was elected for a two-year term, but he’ll graduate and move on from Eastern before his term is up.

He’ll have to resign from his position, and another person will be appointed to the precinct.

There isn’t a republican committeeman for the 16th precinct.

But the campus is very liberal, said Justin Sinner, president of the EIU Republicans and senior political science major.

Republican committeemen are all older, Sinner said. The Republicans have a more local and community focus, while the democrats’ focus is more national.

Three precincts are on Eastern’s campus.

Lincoln, Stevenson and Douglas Halls make up precinct 15. Taylor, Thomas, Ford, Weller, McKinney and Pemberton make up precinct 16. Carman, University Apartments, University Court, Greek Court, Lawson and Andrews make up the 17th precinct.

No other students are committeemen for the campus precincts. And not having a college student is a disadvantage, Sodergren-Baar said.

Travis Bounds, the president for College Democrats on campus, ran for the 15th precinct. But he lost by only a few votes to an older man who already had experience as a precinct committeeman.

College students can be disillusioned by political parties and the government in general, Sodergren-Baar said. And the lowest voting demographic is 18-to-24-year-olds.

It’s a disadvantage for the students who don’t have their voice heard by a peer – another student, he said. “It’s essential to have a student rep.”

Students may see older reps as out of touch from what the students think or want, Sodergren-Baar said.

He saw the opportunity to be a precinct point-person as an interesting way to make a difference on campus.

He’s also the vice president of the College Democrats, which takes up a huge chunk of time, he said. He wishes he was more involved with other things on campus, but there’s no time.

Sodergren-Baar hasn’t decided exactly what he’ll do when he graduates in May, but it’s a toss up between grad school and law school.

He plans to run for office one day after maturing a little and gaining more life experience.

Political views

Of all the issues in the upcoming election, Sodergren-Baar calls education the “bread and butter.”

He’s concerned with education funding and monetary cuts that are being made to higher educations.

Sodergren-Baar was nearly unable to come back to school this fall because of the raise in housing fees.

His family is familiar with education – his mother is a high-school educator.

“I’m a student, I care about students,” he said. “It’s not just my mom pulling the puppet strings.”

Sodergren-Baar part of the old guard, Sinner said, with a “good common sense approach.” He hasn’t boxed himself into any type of idealistic democratic ways.

The republicans aren’t as large of a group as the democrats, but the small group is dedicated, Sinner said.

We don’t sit around and hate each other, Sinner said of the friendly rivalry between the College Democrats and EIU Republicans.

The two groups get along better this year because of the strong and cooperative leadership, he said. Both Sodergren-Baar and Downs have contributed to that, Sinner said.

Election Day

Sodergren-Baar will spend Election Day on campus as a poll watcher. He’ll be at the three campus polling places making sure everything thing is running smoothly.

He’ll also split his time at the Coles County Democrats Headquarters. He’ll be making phone calls reminding people to vote and to vote democratic.

When polls close at 8 p.m., Sodergren-Baar will be at the office on the square, watching election returns.

Sinner said he won’t be in class on Tuesday.

He and the other EIU Republicans will probably start calling people after 3 p.m. to ask if they’ve voted.

“Usually people are really receptive,” said Lucas Quast, a junior elementary education major and vice president of the EIU Republicans.

In the old days, political groups used to drive around town and pick people up to take them to the polls.

But now early voting and absentee ballots have somewhat taken the fun out of Election Day, Sinner said.

After polls close, they Republicans will meet and listen to the live feed of results with the central committee.

After all is said and done, once Election Day is over, both parties will be relieved.

“I’ll be so happy,” Sinner said.