Students vs. the voting booths

Polling places stayed busy Tuesday in Leon County.
Photo submitted by Jasmina Lahens

It is election time and Americans all over the country were at the polls casting their votes on Tuesday. Young adults and students are involved in politics more than ever before and we can probably thank social media for their new-found knowledge.

However, it hasn’t always been that way. According to Campus Vote Project, in 2008 1.7 million students and Americans between the ages 18-25 were not registered to vote. Most of their reasoning was because they simply did not know how to register or where to do it. 

Students feel they were not given the proper awareness needed to understand the registration process. 

“I didn’t know how to register so I didn’t bother to. But, after hearing Andrew Gillum speak and learning a little bit more about the amendments I definitely feel the need to vote,” said Chris Bunkhead a student voter at FSU. “The people in the polling center are trying to help me. I really hope I can register and vote today,” 

Some students don’t know how but want to vote and others aren’t concerned to vote at all. 

“Students don’t care to vote because they don’t understand how these policies will affect them. Most students don’t have to worry about insurance right now because they are under their parents, most students do not understand property taxes because they don’t own property. They don’t care because they truly do not understand the significance,” said Alana Morley a volunteer for the Andrew Gillum campaign. 

According to usa.gov, during the general election Americans go to their polling place to cast their vote for president. But the tally of those votes also known as the popular vote does not determine the winner. Instead, presidential elections use the Electoral College. To win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes. In the event no candidate receives the majority, the House of Representatives chooses the president and the Senate chooses the vice president. 

This whole idea steers students away from voting. They think since the popular vote doesn’t determine the winner, why should they waste their time and energy going to the polls to vote? 

“Students don’t think about the future as much as they should. They don’t know how these things will affect them and they think their vote doesn’t count,” said London Camel a volunteer with Election Protection Agency. “In Florida we are 1 percent state so every little vote counts; please go vote.” 

But the good news is that 40 percent of millennials and 

Generation Z eligible to vote say they will "definitely vote" in the 2018 midterm elections, according to the Harvard Institute of Politics' most recent national youth poll. Wheras only 26 percenrsaid the same in 2014.