Remember when we were gathered in the Hub in the University Center watching political debates? I don’t know where the time has gone, but if you live in Isla Vista, chances are you have been receiving tons of mail and people coming to your door regarding many candidates that are running for various positions in our community and state. As a citizen, we have the right to vote on November 8th and whatever happens will happen, but as a voter who is voting for the first time, I cannot help but have all these thoughts flying through my mind. So here are some of the thoughts I have as a voter:
Who are all these candidates that I have never heard of in my life?
Lately when I have been coming home, I have been finding some type of information regarding a candidate taped to my door, or being hung on my door knob, or even in my mailbox, and almost every time I will look at it the information I am given but really, who are they and what are they actually aiming to do? This is would be where I would have to start researching every candidate, but I cannot help but feel overwhelmed.
How do people know where I live and my phone number?
If you live in Isla Vista like me, there are people that come to my door almost everyday asking me whether they can count on my vote… I don’t know how they got my address but it’s sort of stressful getting people coming to my door everyday. When I went home this weekend, there were phone calls coming that would tell you to vote yes or no on a certain proposition, and that thought just sort of scares me. Aren’t you curious how they got all your information?
Who should I really vote for?
As a voter, one should be informed, but it can get pretty confusing when you go on Youtube to see opposing ads running before every video you watch and get cards in the mail and papers taped to my door that say opposing things.
What are all these propositions?
I’m not sure if you have noticed but there will be a total of seventeen propositions on November 8th’s voting ballot. That is a lot! I have talked to a number of students and I know a lot of people are talking about how there are so many and they don’t really know whether to vote yes or no. Another friend also pointed out that the difficulty in the wording used in propositions because it is confusing and makes it more difficult to weigh the pros and cons of each proposition.
Doing research is a must!
It is nice that lots of people online and websites are summarizing propositions and such but it’s important to research into each proposition and look at each candidate’s stances to be sure that you want to support the person you are choosing.
It’s overwhelming but I must still vote!
It can be a very difficult decision to choose one candidate but it’s important that we do research and vote for someone we believe in because we should really take advantage of our right to vote because not everyone in the world gets to.
Wow this is going to be an important year…
I can’t help but to think about how important this year is going to be. Is the United States going to get it’s first female president? Will Donald Trump become president? Will a third party candidate steal the thunder? We really won’t know until all the votes are counted, but I still can’t believe that tomorrow is November 8th and it’s definitely going to be an important date for the history books!
Now, we just have to buckle down and wait until all the votes are counted so see what big things are going to happen next.