Seniors weigh in on voting
“I have been given the right to have a vote and I would like to use it,” DHS senior Kyle Saltveit said.
David Urhausen, chair of the Yolo County Young Democrats and president of Davis College Democrats Alumni Association, thinks that it is important for young people to vote because “we are the future.”
The goal of the Yolo County Young Democrats and the Davis College Democrats Alumni Association is to register young voters.
“We encourage as many students as we can to register to vote regardless of their political affiliations,” Urhausen said.
“The youth vote is the most underrepresented demographic of the United States population, yet, many issues affect the youth the most,” Urhausen said.
According to Urhausen, youth need to protect their interests by getting out and voting.
“The youth can have a powerful effect on an election. In 2008, the youth was one of the key pushes in President Obama’s ride to the White House,” Urhausen said. “We had an extraordinarily large amount of high school and college students get involved in that election.”
According to Urhausen, young people not only went out to vote, but “many young people go involved in the campaign, participating in door to door canvassing and phone banking.”
With another presidential election coming up in November next year, DHS seniors are deciding whether or not to cast a vote.
Saltveit plans on registering to vote when he turns 18 next summer. According to Saltveit, he will vote in the next election, even though he does not follow politics, because he doesn’t agree with the current government.
Senior Natasha Gunasekara also plans on registering to vote when she turns 18 and voting in the next election.
“It’s our job as citizens to have a say in what affects our lives no matter how direct,” Gunasekara said.
According to Gunasekara, it is important for citizens to make educated decisions when voting that are not skewed by the media.
Senior Jimmy Yo believes that he will register to vote and vote when he turns 18 in June.
According to Yo, at this point he would not vote because he has not been following the news or the views of each candidate recently, but he believes this view will change by the time he turns 18.
“I probably will go and vote because by [the next election], I will be in college and I will have a clear idea of the different views of each candidate,” Yo said.
Senior Corie Owen will not be able to vote in the upcoming election because she does not turn 18 until next December, but she does not mind.
“I don’t think I know enough about politics to vote,” Owen said.
According to Owen, she is unsure whether or not she will register to vote when she does turn 18.
“ I’ll decide when I get closer to 18. Right now, 18 seems like a really long time from now,” Owen said.
