Hungry Krishna lunch patrons got more than their $4 worth when actor Kal Penn walked through the crowded line to make sure people headed to the polls.
Penn, star of the "Harold & Kumar" movies, zipped around Turlington Plaza, the Reitz Union, Pugh Hall and even a few classrooms where he passed out precinct fliers and encouraged students to cast their ballots Tuesday.
"Gainesville and the county itself is such a swing county, and it's going to be close no matter how you look at it," Penn said.
Penn, who returned to UF for a second time after his August appearance for voter registration, is a volunteer for the Obama campaign.
Although his acting takes up four to five days a week in California, Penn said he volunteered most of his weekends touring campuses around the country.
At UF, Penn stayed after 7 p.m. when the polls closed, encouraging people to stay in lines at various voting locations. Penn called people in Colorado and Nevada, states in which polls wouldn't have closed for a few more hours.
He also helped Yes We Van! drive people to voting booths.
"Polls are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and that doesn't mean that a last-minute change of heart can't take place," said Jamie Mann, a UF freshman. "So it's good that he's out here all day."
Penn, an Independent, said he met a student-volunteer in Minnesota who returned from Iraq after being hit by an explosive, leaving him in a wheelchair.
"He said he's volunteering every day for the Obama campaign because, as he put it, 'I don't want anyone else to go through what I went through,'" Penn said. "They want a better solution for the direction of our country. It's the most moving thing I've ever seen in my life."
Although an Obama-Biden victory would be nice, he said, students should keep the same attitude after the elections.
"So many college students have gotten involved in a campaign of their choice," he said. "It would be a shame after today, no matter who wins, if we didn't continue to participate in the political process."
