McCormick Auditorium in Norris was reserved for this night weeks ago. Yet this evening, on Nov. 4, it is empty. This isn’t just any club meeting or a sparsely attended screening for a C-list populated film. Instead, this is Election Night (with a capital “E” and “N”) and what should have been a fiery mob is just a couple of pockets of quiet students. Frantic Medill students make the rounds between the few attendees in a desperate attempt to get their homework assignments done.

At an event where Northwestern’s most politically active should have been, there was a glaring and disappointing absence. Northwestern’s Democrats had the option of taking the a train into Chicago to attend Obama’s Grant Park rally, but the Republicans were left with no clear gathering place.

Nonpartisan student group NU Decides, the group responsible for bringing mass absentee ballot registrations to campus, officially and independently hosted the watch party taking place in McCormick Auditorium. While College Democrats organized a semi-official watch party at their president’s apartment, the College Republicans opted not to organize their own event. Instead, some attended the NU Decides gathering.

It’s not news that Republicans on campus are the minority, but low in number does not translate into low participation. However, despite the hours spent campaigning for local causes, everyone, both Republicans and Democrats, knew that the main race to watch was the Presidential Election.

As Nov. 4 approached, expectations from Northwestern’s College Republicans were varied. Jonathan Green, Weinberg sophomore and founder of Northwestern’s Students for McCain chapter, maintained that his “mentality [was] positive.” Green volunteered for the McCain campaign in Florida up until the election and in an e-mail correspondence said that Students for McCain were “all just crossing our fingers and working hard to get him elected.”

Other Northwestern Republicans were less optimistic – when asked about his expectations for a McCain win, College Republican and Weinberg senior, Nathaniel Zebrowski said he was “hoping and wanting for a win, but not expecting anything.”

Fellow College Republican member and Weinberg junior, Benjamin Strickberger said he expected “McCain to lose” but predicted, “it’ll be closer than what people think.” He added that “it will be a landslide, but not terrible.”

Weinberg senior Nathaniel Zebrowski watches as more Congressional seats are called for the Democrats. Photo by Sara Hetland / North by Northwestern.

Both College Republicans and Students for McCain have spent the past months campaigning on both national and local fronts. Students for McCain have “organized canvassing trips, helped phone banks, flyered, and quarter-sheeted,” said Green. Zebrowski added that College Republicans have campaigned locally for U.S. Representative Mark Kirk and through Young Republicans of Illinois by phonebanking and canvassing. Strickberger spent the day of the election volunteering with Rep. Kirk’s re-election campaign.

Student organization NU Decides held its Election Party at Norris and broadcast live coverage of election results in both the McCormick Auditorium and Starbucks Lounge. There, College Republicans watched the results trickle in from polls as few curious Northwestern students trickled in and out of McCormick Auditorium as well. A panel of students set up tables on the stage beginning at 7p.m. and announced results as they came out. Besides College Republicans, political representation came from a smorgasbord of students who supported both Bob Barr and Hilary Clinton. The audience occasionally applauded or booed, depending on the announcement, but for most of the evening, it was silent. And sparse. One never got to know the green upholstery of McCormick’s seats as well as we did tonight.

Filling in one of these seats though was Weinberg junior and NU Decides Programming Director Samir Pendse. Pendse explained he was considering both candidates, but eventually voted for Senator Obama, primarily for Obama’s inspiration and “opportunity to set the attitude and mentality of the country.” “Obama has the opportunity to make people feel accountable,” a necessary change in Pendse’s opinion.

As results were called on CNN and NBC in Obama’s favor, the majority of attending students cheered and blew on noisemakers while the College Republicans sat quietly. Within McCormick Auditorium, Obama supporters clearly outnumbered the College Republicans. Wearing a “Sportsmen for McCain” t-shirt, Weinberg junior Matthew Kmiecik confessed it can be tough being one of Northwestern’s few Republicans on campus. “I’ve met a couple of other people, but more are reserved and quiet about it.”

Results came in quickly. By 8:20pm, early on in the evening, when Ohio was projected to deliver its 20 Electoral College points to Obama, it became clear that McCain was not going to win the presidential election. “I feel like drinking,” lamented Kmiecik.

“I believe that McCain has an exceptional record, but Obama led an exceptional campaign,” said Zebrowski, who also faulted the recent economic slump as strike against McCain’s campaign. Zebrowski believes that Obama spoke with greater clarity, not superior policy, to swing-states that were particularly hurt by the latest economic crisis such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both Ohio and Pennsylvania delivered their combined 41 Electoral College points to Senator Obama.

Conversation soon turned to predicting what an Obama presidency will be like. “Every presidency is a mixed bag and Obama will have one too,” forecasted Zebrowski while College Republican and Bob Barr supporter, Weinberg Senior William Upton cautioned that “Obama needs to be careful he doesn’t take his election as a mandate.”

By 9:30 p.m. everyone in the Auditorium knew that Obama would be elected and staying at Norris seemed obsolete: It was only a matter of time until Obama supporters nine miles south would cheer so deafeningly loud upon their candidate’s victory. At 10:20 p.m. though, I rushed back to McCormick Auditorium to observe the remaining Republicans’ reaction to McCain’s bittersweet concession speech. Only about twelve attendants were left and about half of them were NU Decides facilitators running the show.

Full disclosure: Jonathan Green blogged for North by Northwestern’s Election ‘08 blog.