I am a college student; I barely know how to mail a letter, pay bills, file my taxes, and I surely do not know enough about the election process. I constantly am wondering how 21 years of my life have gone by without my thoroughly learning these simple, everyday tasks. Although I feel like these are things that should have been learned earlier in life, I wonder how I go to a liberal arts school, where I take general education classes in all subjects, and these everyday lifestyle topics have not been covered? My main concern is this past election.
First off, I want to state that I think it is fair for everyone to go out and make their beliefs heard. This to me initially is difficult, because what do these candidates stances even mean? Being the first presidential election I can even vote in, I quickly went online to try to do my research on the candidates and came across ISideWith.Com. If you aren’t aware of what’s happening with Planned Parenthood, or understand the economic issues etc. how does anyone’s stance honestly matter? I completely agree with the importance in doing your research and knowing what your backing up, but at no point have I been guided to even understand what any of this means.
Another issue is all the different things that go along with elections that hold a lot of importance (but I had no clue even existed). First thing first, the primaries. Prior to this year, I had no clue what a primary was, let alone the importance of actually voting in them! According to votesmart.org, primaries are “a selection process to determine which candidate will appear on the ballot for a given political party in the nationwide general election.” This being said, they’re really important. The primaries are honestly one of the most important part of the elections process (from what I’ve found thus far in my experience). The second thing that caught me off guard was the ballot itself! Because of having to submit an absentee ballot, I was definitely confused as far as how exactly the ballot worked, and who the delegate I was voting for were, but there was only so much I could do with such little experience.
All of this being said, I understand that from experience we will learn; but the question is what type of justice does that provide. Excited to participate in my very first presidential election, I want my voice to be heard. Without knowing all the aspects to voting, am I really giving a fair vote, and is my voice being heard? Overall, my main concern is that more people in my generation learn the importance of the primary elections, at least for years to come. Although I know there are some people who know about the election process, I have definitely heard many people tell me they didn’t realize that the primaries were important, so their voice is not being heard.
My hope is that younger generations become more educated on the process, and the important circumstances, to understand and get out there and vote! When it comes to what the country as a whole wants, time shouldn’t teach us how to make our voice heard; we should be educated on what all goes along with the process!
