Students Go Vote

With Election Day tomorrow, both candidates are hurrying to get some last minute votes swung in their direction. Locally, Texas Tech students are encouraged to get out and vote, no matter which party they favor.

Alex Alston, Texas Tech’s Student Government Association president, described the struggle to get students out and to vote for both the presidential election and local elections here on campus.

“It’s extremely hard,” Alston said. “In any election we have at Texas Tech, we have a low turnout of students who come out to vote.”

Alston said the SGA has taken steps in the past year to get students informed about the election, and to let them know there are polling locations on campus. He said polling locations on campus would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day in the Student Union Building’s Red Raider Lounge.

“A cabinet position was created this year that’s sole focus is to get people out and vote for the presidential election,” Alston said, “and to advertise and let them know there is polling locations on campus.”

Alston said he believes each candidate has run a very good election, and thinks that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have concentrated on the swing states, who will help them win.

“They are really trying to shoot for those undecided states,” Alston said. “They are trying to get them [undecided states] on board in order to advance their win.”

Alston said he thinks Hurricane Sandy will effect the race and believes each candidate could take advantage of this natural disaster in order to help them win.

“I definitely think the hurricane plays a huge role in this race,” Alston said. “It gives which ever candidate an advantage to show that he does care about the people that this hurricane effected. It shows the voters that the candidates do care.”

Alston said the key factor for both parties to win the election is to find a way to get people to the polls. He said it seems to him that both parties are working hard at doing that.

“Get people to the polls. Try to find ways to get not only students and college-aged individuals to the polls, but also those older generations. Just get them out there to vote as well as inform them, and help them be a little bit more knowledgeable about who they are voting for.” Alston said.

Andrew Fetsch, a mechanical engineering major from Hereford, said this would be the first time he has been able to vote in the presidential election since he is only 20 years old.

He said he thinks Romney is running a good campaign and that he plans to vote Republican.

“I’m doing it [voting] just to mainly say I did it,” Fetsch said, “and I really never questioned who I was going to vote for. I was always going to vote for Romney.”

Fetsch said with the hurricane happening so close to the election that there will not be enough time for either candidate to take advantage of it and pull away with the win.

“It’s too late to really effect the tide of voters,” Fetsch said. “We’re four or five days from the election. It’s not going to affect the people coming in to vote, and people aren’t going to be able to talk about it in order to change opinions.”

Fetsch said he believes the hurricane happened during a dead spot, where it happened too close to election time, when most people’s minds were already made up.

Joseph Munnia, a mechanical engineering major from Coppell, said he did not plan on voting this year due to the fact he did not think his one individual vote really matters.

“I have a weird opinion, I just don’t feel like my certain one vote would affect anyone at all,” Munnia said, “but if I were to vote I would vote for Obama.”

Munnia said the reason he is choosing not to vote is because to him it does not really matter. He said although he is not voting he is keeping up with what is going on in the campaign trail. He believes that taxes will be the deciding factor in the election.

“Romney wants to tax the middle class and Obama wants to tax the higher class,” Munnia said, “and it makes sense to me what Obama wants to do because the higher class earns more wages. I think they should take out more of their income in order to have a more balanced overall economy.”

Alston said their main goal as a student government is just to get students to the polls and vote. He said they want to inform the student body about the election and to help educate about each candidate.

“We did a voters registration drive where we registered over 500 students on campus,” Alston said. “We paired up with other diverse organizations on campus to really get students registered to vote, as well as kind of get them a little bit more informed about the two candidates that are running.”

 

by Clay Elmore
Contributed to The Hub by Jour 3312

 

About Clay Elmore