While the voter turnout rate during midterm elections is often smaller than in presidential election years, there are more Californians registered this year than there were in the last midterm election in 2018, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Californians between the ages of 18 and 34 are one-third of the state’s population, but make up one-fifth of registered voters, according to PPIC.
In interviews at Cosumnes River College, six students shared their opinions about voting.
“I want me as a woman to have better rights, right now with abortion laws and stuff like that, I think that’s mostly what I’m looking for,” said Ashley Sarmiento, a 20-year-old sonography major. “I’m looking for women empowerment also in office. I’m looking for leadership for somebody we can rely on.”
Sarmiento said she had voted before in the 2021 election, but wants to feel more prepared for the upcoming one.
“I was very young when I voted, I kind of copied my dad’s answers, I had just kind of piggybacked to what he said,” Sarmiento said. “This time, I was looking more into the candidates and making sure that they have the right ideas.”
Dion Jennings, a 19-year-old film and media studies major, said he will vote for the propositions.
“There’s a big push to legalize online gambling and I kind of am not supporting it,” Jennings said. “I think it’s too easy for kids or younger people to become addicted.”
Nineteen-year-old Sean Sung, a computer science major, said he does not plan to vote this fall.
“I don’t really find the time to educate myself on these subjects and I wouldn’t feel right if I were voting on a matter that I did not personally educate myself on or do research or just have an informed decision on,” Sung said.
Sung said he’d like to see more information about the election.
“More of an effort to educate the community on information pertaining to the candidates, their policies, how we could access this information in general,” Sung said.
Sung’s opinion is not uncommon.
While turnout among younger voters tends to be lower, it’s not because they do not care. But because younger voters don’t always see voting as a way to make change on the issues they care about, said Mindy Romero, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Inclusive Democracy, in an interview with Voice of America.
Thalia Covert, 23, a liberal arts and humanities major, said she has no interest in voting.
“I never got into politics and it seems messy,” Covert said. “If you have a group of friends and they don’t all agree on something and you want to talk about it, it gets messy in that way of having arguments with your best friends.”
Sofia Aguirre, a 20-year-old nursing major, said she will vote this fall.
“It’s a neutral feeling. The people who are there, we have to choose the best between them even if it’s not the perfect or ideal person that we would like,” Aguirre said.
Twenty-one-year-old Rebecca Sutera, a veterinary technology major, said it’s important to vote because peoples’ opinions matter.
“In the past, I haven’t really paid much attention about what specific things people were saying,” Sutera said. “I kind of just voted just to get it out of the way, so this time, I want to try and read more about each contestant so that I can actually choose the right one.”