More than half of the students in a Campus Current poll in September said they do not intend to vote in the midterm elections in November. 

In an informal poll of 25 students on the Arnold campus, 52% said they are uncertain or not going to vote in the midterms, and 48% said they do plan to vote.

“I ain’t even going to cap to you, probably not,” Scooby Stroam, a first-year film student, said, noting he will vote during the next presidential election.

Midterms are the elections two years into each presidential term when people can vote for members of Congress, senators, the governor, and other state and local positions.

Some students said they were unaware of midterm elections. 

“I didn’t even know you could vote,” Devon Crosby, a fourth-year radiology student, said.

First-year transfer studies student Olivia Jones said she is not planning to vote because many candidates do not deliver on their promises. 

“It just really depends on who I believe will ensure that stuff,” Jones said. “Yeah, they’re all promising, but they never deliver.”

Jazzmine Locher, a first-year music therapy student, said it is good voting is optional. 

“I think that everybody’s got to have a choice,” Locher said. “I think that it shouldn’t be, like, forced upon people. And I think that it’s very cool that we live in a country where we get to make that decision.”

Nearly half of the students in the informal poll said they will vote in November. 

Nkechi Leyne, a first-year pre-med transfer studies student, said voting is good for representation. 

“Sometimes you’re not going to get the change you want if you just sit there and be like, ‘Oh, this person should have done that,’” Leyne said. “This way, you have a voice.”

First-year communications student Aalia Syeda agreed it is important for students to vote. 

“I think it’s important to vote because … it seems like the big elections are the only things that matter, but it’s the small ones that matter most,” Syeda said. 

Dabria Smith, a fourth-year culinary student, said having places to vote on campus would make voting easier. 

“I’m here [for] a long time during the day, and that will take a couple hours,” Smith said. “But if I could knock out two birds with one stone, that would be better.”

First-year nursing student Nickell Sealey said everyone should vote.

“I mean, we’re, as young people … shaping … our kids’ generations.” Sealey said. “And it starts now with who we put in office.”