She pushed through the blue and red covered door, her loud laughter suddenly bursting into the biting Chicago air. Face coated in make-up and chin held high, she radiated a sense of satisfaction, as though something important had just happened. A major event.
Faith Garcia had just voted for the first time, and she couldn’t stop smiling.
“I was super excited to come out and vote today,” Garcia said. “I feel very accomplished.”
Garcia, a political science major, said she was inspired to vote by the many strong women in her life who are involved in politics. And yet, despite excitement for her first-ever ballot, the simple act of voting puts Garcia in the minority for midterm elections. According to PBS NewsHour, only 34.6 percent of Americans cast a vote in the 2014 midterms. The last time turnout was that low was World War 2.
Anna Valencia, city clerk of Chicago, said that voting is absolutely essential. That our future depends on it. That our lives depend on it. As only the second woman and youngest person ever elected to the office she currently holds, Valencia said she has seen first hand that each and every person’s vote has true value, and was excited by the prospect of encouraging more and more people, especially young people, to fill out a ballot. And as a Hispanic woman, she said that for her voting is only becoming increasingly important.
“To me, voting is a must,” Valencia said. “If we want more representation of people that look like [me] and more women of color in offices, we have to do our part. [So] I’m really engaged in seeing young people vote and that’s why I think, now more than ever, we have to vote.”
Valencia said the 2018 midterms have seen a rise in voter engagement from past election cycles. According to The Independent, early voting in Texas is up 500 percent for young voters. Krista Teske, who had just cast a ballot at an early voting location, said she had not voted in 2014, but due to increased attention on politics in the last four years and the current political climate, decided she had to vote. And Maisie Bradley, KHS senior, said that she was tired of relying on adults to make political decisions for her.
“Personally, I haven’t really liked the decisions [these adults] have made for my future,” Bradley said. “You know, this could potentially be the highest voter turnout in any midterm election. There’s a lot of young people that feel similarly to how I feel. We’re ready to let our voices be heard.”
And while voter enthusiasm has increased substantially in this election, the impact of this enthusiasm is dependent on voters being able to actually cast a ballot. Valencia said voting accessibility has gotten increased attention as of late, and she attributed the rise in early voting to a greater desire of citizens to ensure their vote gets counted. According to Valencia, early voting gives more flexibility to students, people who work on hourly wages, people with disabilities, and especially people whose jobs make it extremely difficult to make time to vote.
“Early voting is really critical for people who have jobs back-to-back,” Valencia said. “There’s a lot of people who have a job in the morning and in the evening hours, and it’s not easy for people to take the day off work and afford to miss the pay.”
Another potential inhibitor of voter turnout in the upcoming midterms are voter I.D. laws, Deb Lavender, Representative of Kirkwood in the Missouri House of Representatives, said. According to Lavender,
Missouri is one of the 21 states with voter I.D. laws, and Missouri voters are required to show a government-issued photo I.D. at the polling location before voting.
“Not everyone has a government-issued I.D.,” Lavender said. “If you’re not a driver, you wouldn’t have one. This could be young people, people living in rural areas, people living in poverty, or people with disabilities that are non-drivers.That’s a tax non-drivers have to pay to be able to vote. It puts huge hurdles in the way of voters.”
Lavender also said that voter I.D. laws, over the course of history, have affected Democrats to a disproportionate degree, and are most often enacted by Republican administrations. Currently, all of but one of Missouri’s state-wide offices are held by Republicans.
“I think our low income people who are affect are typically Democrats.” Lavender said. And if you are affecting turnout of Democratic voters, it will definitely impact the [overall] turnout of your election.”
Lavender said that recently, Missouri judges have ruled that the government of Missouri cannot require prospective voters to show a photo I.D. in order to vote, which should serve to further increase the levels of turnout on Nov. 6. Because, Valencia said, everyone should be able to vote. Everyone should have the right to vote. Because our lives depend on it, she said.
And for Faith Garcia, voting should never be something that people take for granted.
“I think it’s important to get people politically engaged and to get people excited about voting,” Garcia said. “A lot of young people think their vote doesn’t matter. But there are a lot of people [in the world] who can’t vote [at all]. So it is really important to use your power, use your right, that a lot of people don’t have.”