Out of all the options – judges, delegates, referenda, commissioners – on the Cook County ballot Tuesday, Joanna Chow only marked one name:

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

“I left it to the more educated people in the local community to decide on other things,” said the Communication junior, who considers Obama the most electable candidate.

In a tight nominating race that inspired high turnout across the country, Northwestern students joined residents of 24 states in voting in Super Tuesday races. Many students joined Chow in voting for Obama. But others voted absentee or didn’t vote at all.

“Are you voting today?” asked Brian Korpics, Weinberg ’07, as students passed by the polling place at Parkes Hall on Tuesday morning. Korpics had returned to NU to campaign for his uncle, Robert Milan, who ran and lost in the Cook County state’s attorney election.

Medill sophomore Kassia Shishkoff wasn’t voting. The North Carolina resident forgot to send in an absentee ballot.

“I just want a Democrat in office; I don’t care who it is,” Shishkoff said. “That’s how I vote. My parents vote that way, and it is the way I was raised.”

Other students who voted absentee said it couldn’t compare to the voting booth, pen-and-paper experience their peers had voting in Evanston.

Some worried their votes would be lost in the mail. Others spoke to the delay in counting absentee ballots, which are not recorded until after the election news cycle has ended. Students from swing states said they believed their vote would have more weight in a divided state.

“You definitely feel like you’re having a bigger impact if you go right to the booth, but I still feel like I have an active role,” Communication sophomore Ben Bear said.

Students voting on campus named a variety of issues behind their choice, from values to the indefinable electability question.

“I voted for Ron Paul because he’s the only candidate who voted against the war and decreased the size of government,” said Lee Taylor, a Weinberg sophomore.

SESP junior Nikolia Rallis said moral issues drove her vote.

“I’m big on pro-life,” she said. “It’s a really important thing to me.”

But Obama, as both a Chicago and a youth voter favorite, seemed to draw the largest number of student supporters.

“Obama is really charismatic. My main issue is what he plans to do to improve our image in the world,” said Communication freshman Jonathan Webster, an Evanston resident who voted at Nichols Middle School. “It was a tough pick, because Hillary, being Bill Clinton’s wife, could do a lot for our image, too. But Barack is so fresh and new. He has a chance to change how America is perceived in the world.”

Later in the day, more than 80 Northwestern students and faculty gathered in Scott Hall for the political science department’s party to watch CNN as the poll results rolled in.

“This, of course, is a historic Super Tuesday, ” said Professor Kenneth Janda, the watch’s moderator.

Though the political science election watch party is a tradition during every presidential election, this is the first primary watch party.

“Tonight, the February 5th election, we are electing more than half the delegates to both parties’ conventions,” Janda said. “In 1996, the first primary, in New Hampshire, wasn’t until Feb 21. We’re really frontloading it this year – it’s close to a national primary.”

Aside from the timing of this year’s primaries, the candidates themselves have made this election more interesting than in years past, students said.

“Last time we just had a bunch of staunch old white guys,” said graduate student Marissa Brookes. “Even the Republicans all have something wrong with them that’s going to split the Republican vote.”

– Megan Crepeau, Sara Peck, Christina Salter, Paul Takahashi, Nathalie Tadena and Brittney Wong