Photo by Tom Campbell

As a first-term city councilman, Paul Roales wants Purdue students to have a voice in West Lafayette political affairs.

Paul Roales (pronounced rolls) spent about $5,000 and what seemed like an equal number of hours in his successful campaign for a seat on the West Lafayette City Council.

But it took 10 days before he found out that he had succeeded.

He did everything the local Democratic Party recommended. He registered voters, debated his opponent, and went door-to-door in his district, a sliver of the community that borders Purdue’s campus.

To get his message about student issues across to voters and to find out what they thought were important issues, the agricultural economics grad student even did a few things not found in the campaign to-do booklet.

“I used Facebook, got the Boilermaker Special to transport voters to the polls, and hosted several barbecues at the student apartment complexes in my district.” After all, Roales thought, “What student can pass up a free meal?”

At 6 p.m. Nov. 6, the polls closed. Very soon, Roales thought, he could put it all behind him and refocus on his thesis on the relationship between markets and online advertising. Depending on the vote count, it would be a great win or just a good, but painful, lesson in the election process.

Roales starts off 1 vote behind

But thanks to computer glitches, election night for Roales became one of the longest nights of his life.

Roales put the champagne on ice and had friends and family come over to follow the vote tally. “Since everything is computerized, we expected to know the final results by 8 p.m.,” Roales says.

But the first result didn’t even come in until 7 p.m.

“It said Ross (McMullin) had 100 percent of the vote. He had one vote and I had zero. And it stayed that way for about an hour.”

Roales’ latest foray into the election process wasn’t going any better than his first.

“I ran for student council in sixth grade back at Nuttall Middle School in my hometown of Robinson, Illinois,” he recalls, “and I got trounced.”

As an undergraduate student (Roales earned a BS in industrial technology in 2004) he was involved in Purdue Student Government. But it wasn’t until he entered graduate school that he considered public office.

“There is a long history of leadership in the agricultural economics department. It’s amazing what the people in this department have accomplished. The department provides a culture that encourages taking on leadership roles,” he says.

Issues such as student safety, parking and tenant rights were important enough to make Roales want to be the student voice on the city council. But the vote tabulation process was giving him some doubts.

Two hours later, he leads 15-13

By 9:30, Roales had taken a commanding 15-13 lead. Commanding, only because of the historically low voter turnout in West Lafayette’s District 1. Only 127 people cast votes during the 2003 election.

“Most of the people in the district are students,” says Roales. “Many don’t register, some are foreign students and can’t vote in a U.S. election, so I knew turnout would be small.”

By 1 a.m., with the result still unknown, Roales’ victory party had dwindled to about six people who found a better way to be entertained than to monitor election results.

“We watched TV and played Guitar Hero to pass the time,” Roales admits.

Then Roales got a call from the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, where election officials were trying to iron out the computer problems that had placed the whole election in a state of flux.

At 1 a.m., he’s ahead 53-51

“They said I was ahead 53-51. I was really pleased, but I knew there were as many as 120 provisional ballots out there from people who didn’t have proper IDs when they went to vote.”

So the champagne remained unopened.

“We didn’t want to tempt fate,” he says.

The next morning, Roales found out that six of the provisional ballots were from his district and would not be counted until Nov. 16, 10 days after the election. His longest night would now stretch for almost two weeks.

It was 10 days of questioning. And each one seemed to begin with “What if.”

What if I had worked a little more?

What if I had registered a few more voters?

What if I had hit the fraternities and sororities a little harder?

What if I had called a few more voters?

“Any one thing I did or didn’t do during the course of the election could have changed the results,” he says.

Eventually, he tried to put it out of his mind. Ten days, after all, is a long time to be racked by self-doubt.

“I tried to concentrate on my thesis and not think about the election. I know that, during the campaign, I didn’t pay as much attention to my thesis work as I needed.”

Republican and Democratic party officials met at the Tippecanoe County Election Board on Nov. 16 to certify contested ballots and declare winners in the two West Lafayette council races that had been too close to call for 10 days.

Finally, Roales wins by 4 votes

For two hours Roales fidgeted, paced and waited. At 3 p.m., Bob Hicks, the Republican Party county chairman, emerged from the meeting and offered Roales his hand.

“Congratulations,” Hicks said. “I hope you can live up to your campaign promises.”

By certifying the provisional ballots, the margin of Roales’ victory had actually increased to four votes. But it was hardly time to celebrate. The overriding emotion was not elation, but relief. Fitting, considering what Roales had endured during those long 10 days between the election and validation of his victory.

“It was the middle of the afternoon,” Roales says. “All of my friends were either working or still in class. The only one around I could share my victory with was my roommate.”

But the victory, and the champagne, still tasted sweet.

Contact Roales at proales@proales.com