With the California primary long past, gone are the Obama flyers, political rallies and aura of unsettled excitement. But some Stanford students are still eagerly casting their ballots in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, as well as those in half a dozen other states.

Though nearly 50 percent of Stanford’s student body hails from California, other students must choose whether to cast a ballot in their home states or at their local precinct. Eric Lau ‘11, a native of Hawaii, chose to vote in California’s earlier primary.

“In Hawaii, most of my friends don’t vote,” Lau said. “They think it’s weird or something. But at Stanford, politics is something you cannot ignore. The atmosphere definitely increased the likelihood that I would vote.”

Lau said the process of registering as a California voter was easy.

“My hallmate came up and asked me to register, it took a couple of minutes,” he said.

The hallmate who encouraged Lau to register is Sam Larson ‘11, a member of Stanford Democrats. Larson explained that the organization mobilized to encourage unregistered Stanford students to register to vote in California or in their home states.

“We were told to recommend [to] out-of-state students that they could vote in California, and to remind them that it was a very important primary,” Larson said.

Larson, an Oregon resident, also chose to vote early in California. In retrospect, Larson said he wished he had voted in Oregon.

“It would have made a bigger difference,” he said. “Plus, there are a lot of ballot initiatives in Oregon that I missed out on.”

Lau expressed similar sentiments.

“Next time, I am going to vote in Hawaii,” he said. “My friends and I have similar beliefs but since many of them don’t vote, I feel like by voting in Hawaii I’ll be representing them. My vote in Hawaii would make a bigger impact.”

Freshman Neveen Mahmoud ‘11 already chose to send an absentee ballot as a Pennsylvania voter.

“I’m a part of ‘Students for Obama,’” Mahmoud explained, “and when I saw all the hype of Obama I assumed that he would win in California and that my vote would make more of a difference in Pennsylvania.

Given the prevalence of Obama support on campus, Mahmoud was surprised by the senator’s defeat in the California primary.

“I had forgotten that Stanford is just one small subset of California,” she said.

She added that Stanford students seem less politically engaged now that the California primary has passed.

“I am still getting inundated with information because I am involved in a political organization,” Mahmoud said. “But for the rest of campus I think it’s easy to not feel the same excitement.”