The Midterms Are Here: What Do Students Think?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MSU Exponent, its editorial staff, advisers, or Montana State University.

Based on all the YouTube ads we’ve all been seeing the past few weeks, I’m pretty sure that at this point we all know it’s election season. 

Now what does that mean for us college students? Do these ads motivate you to research the featured candidates who are running for the Senate so your vote is well-informed? Or are you annoyed by the constant ads — many of which are doom-and-gloom in tone — and wish YouTube provided a skip option for them?

I’m asking all of these questions to try and understand something about students during this time of year: Do college students vote, and why or why not? What motivates them to either get up and vote, or ignore the ads until the elections are over?

To explore these questions, I spoke with several students about their opinions on voting in elections, observations they’ve made about voting enthusiasm and changes they think need to be made so more people vote. 

Everyone I spoke to does vote or has expressed interest in voting, though some differences did arise in the elections they chose to participate in.

Randee Tormondsen, an economics and political science major, said she votes in all types of elections. 

“I love being able to vote in our local elections. With upcoming midterms, I think we’ve got a lot of Montana problems worth voting for, and then obviously, the presidential election is a big one to vote for,” she said.  

Calvin Schmidt, an economics major, has a different perspective. “I’m not educated enough on local politicians, I don’t keep track of what's going on in county and statewide elections, I only vote in the big elections,” he said.

This variety reflects the diverse voter base in Montana and the U.S. as a whole. There are people who are super involved and take part in elections on every level, while others take part mainly on a large scale. 

This is partly because it is easier to know what's going on on the national level, because that news is what gets all of the attention for longer periods of time. I certainly remember the months of coverage related to the primaries for both Democrats and Republicans, the presidential and vice presidential debates, the YouTube videos analyzing polling numbers — all that good stuff.

I think this focus on the presidential election is partially why some people find themselves only voting in those races, if they do at all. It’s like Schmidt said regarding not being educated on local elections. So much of the attention is on the national-level elections, so there aren’t as many chances for people to learn about local elections in comparison. Yes, we’ve been seeing political ads lately for senatorial candidates but let’s be honest, this is the first time a lot of us are learning who any of these people are. 

This lack of knowledge is a contributing factor for college students not taking part in local elections. I mean, you can’t exactly participate if you don’t know the issues at hand or the people running for office. 

“I feel like not a lot of people fully understand the magnitude of how we’re voting on our public lands, we’re voting on healthcare, we’re voting on, like, there are some very important day-to-day issues,” Tormondsen said.

She further elaborated, saying, “If, maybe we knew better from institutions or from the University how important this stuff is, then maybe a lot more [people] would be willing to vote.” 

Personally, I don’t know how practical it would be to have universities like MSU provide information about elections. I can easily see controversies arising with accusations of biases being pushed. But student-run groups that try to get information to people? I think that works.

Everything we just talked about only applies to people who are interested in voting but don’t have the information they need. There are definitely cases of students who don’t vote at all because they don’t want to.

I do think this is understandable. Kelsey Green, a Ph.D. student in the College of Letters and Sciences, put it well: “I think a lot of students are disgruntled with the process, they don’t think that their voice actually matters, or that their vote actually matters, the Electoral College and all of that business. Or they just assume that they don't know enough to contribute a perspective.”

Part of this does tie into the whole thing about people not knowing enough to vote, but the beginning has more to do with cynicism. In their minds, why bother going out and voting? It won’t matter so there’s no point. 

I think this type of cynicism stems primarily from burnout related to presidential elections, which is more than understandable. People get the most excited about them, people focus on them for most, and if it doesn’t go their way, they’ll be crushed. 

Here’s the solution though: this can be avoided if people take part in local elections. As Green put it: “These midterm elections, with local issues, they matter even more because it’s a smaller sample size, and so, their vote does actually contribute to the outcome and only the people who are super-duper passionate end up being the ones to vote.”

If people see that their vote does make a difference by seeing it happen on a small scale, then they’ll be more likely to gain that passion to vote more often. This speaks to how people operate in general — if they get rewarded for doing something, they’ll want to keep doing it. 

Before people start voting though, there are many, many, and I mean many things they’ll need to keep in mind so they vote correctly. And when I say that, I mean that people will need to know who they’re voting for. 

“Do everything you can to understand who you’re voting for, what their stance is, what they say they’re going to do, what they’ve done in the past, if they’ve followed through on their promises in previous elections,” Schmidt said.

I agree with this as you’ll want to vote people into office who will actually do what they promise. If you’re going to exercise your voice and vote, don’t use it for politicians who do not deserve it. Make sure you really understand them so you know that they’ll be good for you and your community. 

So, let’s wrap all of this up into a neat little bow. Plenty of college students do vote because they are passionate, while some who don’t have lost faith in the system. For those who don’t vote, just get out there and learn more. Learn more about what's going on in your community and state, learn more about those who claim that they’ll tackle the important issues. 

If you do that, you’ll find yourself making a greater difference than you thought you would.