It's a presidential election year and every second counts as we have 48 days until a new president sees the inside of the Oval Office. The only way the president gets to that seat though is if we, as the people, vote. Yes, the Electoral College has the ultimate say but the way we set them into motion is first by casting our votes.

The voices of college students are so important and could essentially make or break an election—and sadly not a large majority of college students vote. Regardless if its because they aren't registered in their college town (which can be easily fixed!) or because of confusing of polling locations, college students aren't getting their voices heard and that's just not acceptable.

One of the biggest take aways from students not voting is class. Election day is on November 8th, 2016, a Tuesday. For college students no day is a day off and Election day is much the same. With classes 8 - 5 p.m. and a ridiculous amount of students in the areas where polling takes place, voting becomes a hassle. You can't take time out of your day to vote for fear of missing a class or not having an excused absence—which is absurd. Student Ricardo Luis Rojas Estrada wants to change that starting a petition to have voting become an excused absence for the university. If you are standing in line to vote, there is no reason you should have a penalty placed upon you if you cannot make it to class.

When asked why voting is so important to Ricardo he said "Voting is important to me because I see it as the primordial right. It's the right that enables all of our rights. If you don't have the right to choose who governs you, then you can lose your right to free expression, to peaceful assembly, to exercise your religion. You lose the right to decide the future of the country. Enabling as many people to vote as possible is important because it's enabling the exercise of all of our other rights."

Preach!

If you are a Penn State student here is the link to the petition.

I encourage you all to sign it—enable your right to vote no matter who you are voting for!