Are you feeling like your vote didn’t count? On the news you hear that young people didn’t turnout to vote in this election despite the efforts of many.

Well this just isn’t so at least not in our corner of the world.

UTM students turned out in record numbers this election.

UTM students re-elected State Rep. Mark Maddox, State Senator Roy Herron, U.S. Congressman John Tanner and even voted to send John Kerry to the White house, by a 530-499 margin.

The turnout almost doubled in this election versus 2000.

So UTM stand proud, your voice was heard.

On a separate note I would like to thank the students, faculty and staff that participated in this years election and all of the College Democrats.

Due to your hard work we had a successful Rally the Vote event with media coverage from all over West Tennessee, a successful voter registration drive and a successful election day for Democrats across our area.

Thank You.

In the coming days and months both sides are going to be making claims to victory but the true winner in this election was not the Democrats or the Republicans it was America.

On Election Day we saw many right here on this campus brave the rain and cold to cast their vote.

That is true Democracy. — Wil Hammond is a senior B.U.S. major from Martin, and is the president of the UTM College Democrats.