By Ashley Antonini
NORMAL – Students on college campuses are among those casting ballots in the primary election.
Students at Illinois State University are heading to the Bone Student Center to record their votes. Student Kathleen Lewis says it is her duty as a citizen to participate.
“I think it is a civic duty to come out and vote. It is my way of getting my voice heard and make a change in my society,” said Lewis.
Though some are motivated to voice their opinions in the polls, only a small portion of the approximately 20,000 students at the university turnout to vote in the primary election. Student Sarah Locke says it has something to do with students relying on others to make the decision for them.
“A lot of students just think that it does not affect them or maybe they do not realize how politics are in our everyday lives and in literally everything we do. They just think they are okay with other people making the decisions for them,” Locke said.
As a political science minor, Locke said she feels many students outside of her department were not well-informed on the details for the primary election and she wished the school would have done more to promote them.
“I think that if you are not a political science major or minor like I am, you’re not going to know a lot of details [about the election] and so you are not going to go seek out the information yourself,” Locke said. “It kind of just needs to be there [around campus] to remind students.”
Though some rely on their college campuses to educate them on upcoming elections, others, like student Brian Zielinski, turn to social media.
Zielinski said he was exposed to the candidates for governor through social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter. Not being impressed with the choices he was exposed to, he conducted his own research to find out the candidate he felt was worthy of his vote. Aside from helping him shape his decision on who to vote for, social media was also his motivation to vote in general.
“I wasn’t really swayed by social media at all, but I saw that people were going out and voting and I thought maybe I should do that to. So I wasn’t being persuaded, but it definitely got me out to vote,” said Zielinski.
Four years ago, the primary election only had a six-person turnout at the Bone Student Center, but turnout on the ISU campus was at 215 people at 1 p.m. One of the lead election judges at the Bone Student Center, Richard Greenfield, said it most likely stemmed from the race for governor.
Ashley Antonini can be reached at [email protected].
