{"id":464,"date":"2018-10-25T13:36:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T13:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/10\/25\/20181024does-my-vote-matter\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:41:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:41:59","slug":"20181024does-my-vote-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/10\/25\/20181024does-my-vote-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Does my vote matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sierra Goodwill<\/p>\n

In the 2016 presidential election, approximately 50 percent of young citizens, aged 18-29, voted. Out of the 23.7 million millennial participants, it is estimated that 13 million voted for Hillary Clinton and nearly 9 million for Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

These statistics, generated by Tufts University\u2019s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), prove that there were still approximately 24 million young Americans that failed to get to the polls on election day. <\/p>\n

Since the majority of 18-29 year olds who voted were in favor of the democratic candidate and the republican candidate won, many people are wondering if their vote even matters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the way the electoral college is set up and the fact that Connecticut is such a democratic state anyways, it\u2019s like my one little vote won\u2019t do much,\u201d University of Connecticut senior Adam Busa said.<\/p>\n

However, students at Quinnipiac University have a different mindset.<\/p>\n

M.J. Baird is a senior from Massachusetts who will be voting in the midterm election via absentee ballot this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think that their vote doesn\u2019t matter when they live in states that are consistently blue or consistently red. At times I feel that way because in the grand scheme of things, never will one single vote make the difference,\u201d Baird said. \u201cHowever, a vote is an endorsement and is important to show an accurate representation of society.\u201d <\/p>\n

Massachusetts is an overwhelmingly blue voting state, but Baird said that shouldn\u2019t keep people who want to vote red from casting their vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf no republicans voted in this election because they knew their state was going blue and therefore continued in the belief that their vote didn\u2019t matter, then there would be an inaccurate representation of the voter beliefs in that state,\u201d he said. \u201cShowing there are different viewpoints nationwide is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

America has become increasingly polarized since President Trump has taken office and issues where political parties have opposite stances are consistently discussed and argued; immigration, women\u2019s rights, etc. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Josh Silverman, a senior at Quinnipiac, says that if you want to share your opinion or complain about what\u2019s happening in our country, then you must also be willing to vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cI care to vote because I think if you are going to whine about what is going on, you have the responsibility to try to create change when you can,\u201d Silverman said.<\/p>\n

Baird echos that same sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stand people who complain about the outcome of an election, but then say they didn\u2019t vote,\u201d he said. \u201cVoting is a staple of our democracy and a civic duty people need to fulfill no matter what their views are or what state they live in. I vote so I can be a relevant and informed member of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midterm elections are quickly approaching and Silverman says he\u2019s going to try and get all of his friends off the couch and into the polls on Nov. 6. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy roommates and friends, especially the ones from Connecticut, will probably be annoyed with me for midterm elections because I\u2019m going to annoy them until they get up and vote,\u201d he said. \u201cOr else I just won\u2019t listen to them the next time they make political comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

A main reason, however, that the younger generation decides not to cast a vote is feeling like the issues at hand don\u2019t affect their daily lives yet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t plan on voting because I haven\u2019t educated myself enough to have an opinion since I haven\u2019t been on my own very long,\u201d recent Quinnipiac graduate Julia Zarrilli said. \u201cIn the next couple years when I feel like things will start to affect me more, I\u2019ll be able to form a more educated opinion on who to vote for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young citizens are being encouraged to head to the polls and vote for the 2018 midterm elections. Hear from some college students about why they may or may not be participating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2547,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/2547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}