With the 2016 presidential primaries in full swing, I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking about the best candidate. This will be my first time voting in a presidential election, and I really want to make my vote count! Voting is a privilege that we're lucky enough to have here in this country, so we shouldn’t waste it by choosing a candidate simply because we’ve heard his or her name the most. I’ve been doing a lot of research so that I can be an educated voter, and I thought I’d share some of my tips for other millenials (or anyone else) out there who is also voting for the first time!
First things first, to vote you need to register! I registered a few months ago and it was a lot easier than I thought. I know a lot of young people feel like their vote won’t matter, so they don’t bother registering. This isn’t true; in order to make the election outcome truly representative of people in the U.S., younger and older people alike need to make their voice heard. Voter turnout in the 2012 general election was only 57.5 percent of the population of eligible voters---that’s almost half of the population unrepresented.
It will give you a great place to start, if you haven't been keeping up with the election process so far. Obviously, it tells you which candidates you side with the most based on your answers, but it also gets you thinking about where you stand on certain issues. Personally, I hadn't really given much thought to domestic policy, foreign affairs, national security, etc. But after taking the quiz, I learned which issues I feel strongly about and which I should do more research on. When voting, it's important to have a definite opinion on the issues, seeing as ultimately they will impact us.
Re-watching the Democratic and Republican debates might be amusing to watch Trump yell at the other candidates, but you can also get a really good idea of who you agree and disagree with. Of course, I would definitely suggest reading up on each candidate before or after, but if you're just tuning into the election, watching the debates is a great place to start. Also, as a disclaimer, yes, the debates are very long and can sometimes be pretty dry. I would recommend watching recaps of the most recent ones on Youtube, or Googling articles that discuss the highlights.
Another tip is to check each candidate's campaign website. It isn't too difficult to do some Google searches on the Democratic and Republican front-runners. There are even several sites that compare the candidates for you, so that you don't have to flip between each candidate's website. However, I strongly suggest taking the time to view each candidate’s website; the issues and where they stand on them are clearly mapped out, making it easy to create a pros and cons list.
It's also important to look for signs of good judgment. This sounds obvious, right? Well, not to everyone. Of course we want a president who will exercise common sense. Try searching online for records of the previous careers of each candidate, and look to see how they handled situations thrown at them. This can be a good indicator of how they will behave if they are put in charge of our country.
Don't vote for the guy you hate just because he has the greatest chance of winning. Alternatively, don't vote for the candidate you love even though they have zero chance of winning the nomination. Instead, try to find a middle man; someone you would be OK with being president but who also has more of a chance of winning. Think the candidates who are polling second or third.
We all know that CNN and Fox aren’t the most reliable sources if we’re trying to find a relatively unbiased account of political events. It’s OK to use these sources for general info, but I always try to cross-check everything with different popular newspapers, and sources like NPR.
It's important to participate and be informed in politics, as ultimately we're all affected by the outcome of this election. Voting in the presidential election is one of the easiest ways to get your voice heard! If your state has already had its primaries, no worries---there's always the general election. So, get researching!
