Isabella Colina Hidalgo.
This is a question that we often hear, not only in school but pretty much everywhere. As you should all know by now, the upcoming Presidential Election will take place in less than a month, on November 3rd. So it’s really important to register to vote before the deadline. For many of you, it should be a really exciting time since this will be the first time exercising your right to vote. According to How to Vote the deadlines for registering to vote in Pennsylvania are the following:
-Online & In-person: October 19th
-By mail: Received by October 19th
Voting is an important privilege that you have and you should exercise it because not everyone gets the right to vote. There are countries where people live under dictatorships and they aren’t allowed to vote. You can even look at the history in our country where there were times where women, African Americans, and other minorities couldn’t vote.
I created a survey within our own community here at SJU where I was asking students whether they have registered to vote and what effect voting had on them. Not many many students replied but these are the statistics from the survey and the responses that I thought were really relevant.
Out of the eight students’ responses that we received there was only one student who said that they had not registered to vote. The responses to the question “How does voting affect you as a college student?” were the following:
“Voting in this election is very important because the next presidential term will determine what kind of economy and workforce I enter when I graduate. This election is also important with COVID and hopes of the country eventually getting back to normal.”
“Voting affects not only me personally but also the community I live in and everyone who I associate with. As a college student I recognize that it is important that the youth be represented in the election and we need to make our voices heard now more than ever.”
“Voting can affect the outcome of my student loans at the end of my 4 years in college.”
“It will affect my next 4 years of college and potentially life after. It matters and has an effect on all of us.”
I thought these responses were the most relevant because most of them talk about how we should care about the next four years of the presidential term because even though we are still in college, once we graduate it will play a more important role in our lives than it does now. Even if now doesn’t seem like it will do a lot for us, we should think about the future and how it might affect us and those around us.
Also, just a reminder that if you live on campus that means you reside in Pennsylvania and you’re eligible to vote here. If you have any questions on how to register to vote, I encourage you to visit https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote. I invite you to acknowledge the great privilege of voting that many of you have. Please exercise your right to vote!
