On The Edge News

By Perri Moran 

The final results came in around 3 a.m. Wednesday. Many people had gone to bed by that time, but many were up, biting their nails and refreshing their browsers to see the counts changing in real time. It was the election that had people awake, and the governor’s race that had them on the edge of their seats. 

The gap between Evers’ and Walker’s votes widened, then shrunk, only to continue fluctuating until the results were nearly finalized: Tony Evers would be the next governor of Wisconsin. 

For many people, and young people in particular, this was a huge success. The Nov. 6 election was one that struck a chord for many millennials.  

According to TargetSmart, a political data firm, approximately 1.1 million voters aged 18-29 cast their vote early in the 2014 midterms. In this past midterm election, more than 3.3 million young people in that same age group cast their votes early. From that data, The Atlantic reported a 188 percent increase in voters aged 18-29 from 2014 to 2018.  

Something made young people want to vote. Something made them realize that their vote mattered. 

Jade Proctor, 20, a political science major at Edgewood College, said she felt her vote was very important. “My vote mattered more than in other elections because I knew how close the race was going to be and that my vote was going to help to tip the election,” she said.  

Proctor also had thoughts about why so many other young people were voting. “This election was the first time many young people could vote since Trump was elected,” she said. “This was the first opportunity for many young people to say, ‘I am unhappy with the current state of politics in the US and I can finally do something about it’.” 

Nicole Pham, 19, a student at UW-Madison, also had some ideas of why young people may be voting more. “Unfortunately, the United States has faced many terrible events within the past year,” she said. “At this point, it is not shocking when you see a ‘Breaking News’ alert of another mass shooting.

2017 was deemed the deadliest year of mass shootings in modern history, according to Aol. The Gun Violence Archive reported that in 2017 there were 346 mass shootings, and 3,246 teens (aged 12-17) killed or injured by shooting. These shootings and gun laws are a contributing factor to the rise of young people voting. 

In the wake of the shootings, Pham realized just how much her individual vote mattered, particularly in the last moments of the gubernatorial election. She said, “The numbers between Evers and Walker were sometimes within hundreds of each other, and it truly emphasized the fact that every vote counts.” 

Another Edgewood student, Kate Fowler, 19, felt similarly. “There needed to be change,” she said. This was Fowler’s second time ever voting— her first time voting was in this election’s primaries. She said she felt like her vote really mattered in this election. “It was so close. The governor’s race especially. It frustrates me when people think their votes don’t count, because they do.” 

Students seemed to be doing more to stress the importance of voting to their friends and peers as well. Fowler said she helped her friends register and find their polling places, and Pham used social media as a platform to spread the word on the importance of voting to her followers. 

Lindsey Barge, 19, said she checked in with her roommates and friends to make sure they knew how to vote and knew about the candidates and what they stood for. Proctor also tried to educate them on why voting mattered. 

“I tried to make sure that everyone I came into contact with knew how important their vote was and that I could assist them if they needed help on registering to vote,” she said. 

When the votes finally began rolling in, it became clearer to a lot of students how much their votes really did matter. “I was at a dress rehearsal for a musical as the votes were coming in, so I was around my friends who also had a interest in the results,” Proctor said. “Every time we had a moment off stage we had as many as five news sites on our phones to check the results and shout them out to the rest of the cast. This made for a very stressful night, but a great cast bonding experience.” 

Fowler recalled, “I was online, just refreshing everything just to see what the results were in real time. I couldn’t go to sleep until I knew. I didn’t want to wake up and be disappointed.”  

Fowler said that in that moment, when Walker and Evers were both at 49 percent, she realized her vote truly mattered. “When I found out [that Evers won], I was so excited because that needed to happen. We needed change.” 

Barge said she felt the same way when the last votes were being counted. “Towards the end when we were seeing how close it really was… every vote really counts,” she said. “I just wish people would realize that in other elections too. I think it’s important to vote in general.” 

The students all had a few words for their peers who were capable of voting, but not interested. “If you’re going to be upset about something… you can’t complain if you didn’t vote,” Barge said. 

Pham said that not voting “is just irresponsible. If you have the privilege to vote, then do it.” 

Fowler had similar thoughts.  “I don’t think that there is an excuse. I think that everyone has the time to do the research and form their own opinions on things,” she said. “If you’re away from home, at school or something, change your address or send in an absentee ballot. There are so many different options that there are really no excuses not to [vote] at this point.”  

Proctor agreed. “Now you can see that change can come and that every vote matters, including yours.”