FAMU’s Student Voter Coalition will host a Presidential Election Night Watch Party on Tuesday, Nov. 4, from 7 p.m. to midnight. It will take place in the Quad, where Michelle Obama and Jill Biden both spoke on the morning after this year’s first presidential debate.FAMU organizers asked Florida State University’s Student Voter Coalition/Black Student Union Movement to join them to help sponsor the event in cooperation with TV One.
FAMU President James Ammons, several elected officials and political commentators will participate in the watch party.
“We’ll have big screen TV monitors to watch the results roll in,” said Vincent Evans, a member of the FAMU student voter coalition. “We encourage students to bring lawn chairs and blankets.”
In the event of inclement weather, the Presidential Election Night Watch Party will be moved into the Lee Hall Auditorium.
Dorothy Bland, FAMU’s journalism division director, said she is delighted that TV One, the national cable network that targets African-Americans, will partner with FAMU broadcast journalism students to provide cut-ins throughout the evening’s broadcast. TV One reaches more than 45.8 million households.
Broadcast journalism students Brent Hatchett, a TV 20 and Alicia Mitchell will host the national feeds from FAMU’s TV 20.
“This is great exposure for FAMU, our students and FAMU-TV 20,” said Kenneth Jones, an associate professor and coordinator for broadcast journalism.
Jones added that the students in the advanced TV news class, under the leadership of William Jiles, will produce a half-hour Election Night Show at 11 p.m. on Comcast’s Cable Channel 20.
Keith Miles, general manager for FAMU’s WANM-FM 90.5, said broadcast students will provide hourly election night updates on The Flava Station from the Leon County Courthouse and the FAMU campus that evening.
According to Andrew Skerritt, an assistant professor and adviser for the Famuan, FAMU’s award-winning student newspaper, the newspaper will have a special election issue in print and online.
FAMU’s student voter coalition organized a Wake Up to Vote Rally and March on October 20, the first day of early voting in the State of Florida. More than 1,000 individuals participated. Ammons led FAMU students, faculty, and staff to the Leon County Courthouse. The early voting march took place in lieu of a planned “Sleep Out the Vote” which would have gathered students to vote on Nov. 4.