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Ballad of the Anxious Ballot Casters: Oklahoma Christian students’ thoughts on the upcoming election

For about half of Generation Z in America, the upcoming election will provide young voters their first opportunity to vote in a presidential election. However, will these newly eligible voters even participate in the upcoming national and local elections? 

Recent activity in the political landscape has generated a negative environment around voting and engaging in the political sphere. 

With political violence on the rise — seen through the lens of recent assassination attempts on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Jan. 6, 2020, incident — some voters are concerned about how the election results will be received. 

Ashlyn Pendergrass, a senior English writing major, expressed apprehension and dread about the upcoming election but still intends to cast her ballot in November. 

“No matter what happens, people are probably going to riot, and there are probably going to be a lot of disagreements among friends and colleagues,” Pendergrass said. 

This fear is not held by only Pendergrass; a survey performed by Scripps News reports “62% of respondents say violence related to the election is ‘somewhat’ or ‘very likely.’”

Aiden Whinery, a freshman English major, is abstaining from federal voting entirely due to apathy toward the candidates.

“It’s gotten to such a tragic point that I don’t want to vote for either candidate, and it’s almost that I just don’t want to deal with it at all. I feel like, either way, it’s just going to be poor, but I know God can work through either candidate,” Whinery said.

Seth Peace, a freshman Electrical Engineering major, displayed a similar dislike of the political environment.

“I think the fact that to actually be in the running requires a ridiculous amount of money means that any actually good candidates aren’t able to make it onto the ballot, which means that both options are always bad,” Peace said.

Despite his opinions on the quality of the candidates, Peace still emphasizes the importance of voting.

“Even though both of the candidates are bad, I think that it’s everyone’s civic duty to vote, so you should do that,” Peace said.

The apprehension towards voting mostly hinges on the national election, with many voters not entirely aware of local candidates or state-based questions on the ballot despite the more imminent results of local elections.

“People should take the time to become informed about their local elections. Local elections have important consequences and voters should not dismiss them,” Matthew Gross at the Harvard Political Review said. 

“I don’t plan on voting local, and I don’t know anything about it,” Ethan Mustchlechner, junior Biblical studies major, said. 

Pendergrass echoed this sentiment, stating she knew next to nothing about local candidates and does not want to vote while she is uninformed on candidates and state questions. 

In Oklahoma, there are two major state questions on the ballot: state question 834, which deals with changing precision of language within the Oklahoma Constitution, and state question 833, which allows the authorization of creating Public Infrastructure Districts. Both of these issues directly affect Oklahomans more than which executive is in office, but many are unaware of these questions. 

For Illinois resident Caitlyn Windell, the voting process has another level of potential difficulty: she has signed up to vote absentee. Using the online portal, she indicated she is an out-of-state college student and requested a mail-in ballot to be sent to her school address. Thanks to this form of voting, college students attending universities far from home can still engage in political conversation. 

Windell, a senior criminal justice major, said she was inspired by the importance of this election to vote absentee. 

“I felt like this election was really important to say who I wanted to be president and decide to do it on my own,” Windell said.

For more information on voting, refer to the USA.gov website to find your state’s regulations and voting requirements. 

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