Monday, September 28 Milligan’s student run newspaper, The Stampede, announced a mock presidential election for students to participate in. Voting was open for five days and students could make their voices heard by voting on the GoogleForm that was sent out via email or scan a QR code posted on social media or on printed flyers.
131 students participated in the mock election. From those responses, current president Donald Trump won with 51.9% of the votes. The current democratic candidate, Joseph Biden, landed second place with 39.7% of the votes.
One of the goals of the mock election was to remind students that the time to vote in the official election is approaching. On the flyer promoting the mock election, the website govotetn.gov was attached to hopefully prompt students to check their voting status and prepare for the election.
On Friday, October 2, following the conclusion of the mock election, SGA members had a booth in the SUB on campus to provide aid for students who had not yet registered to vote.
SGA President, Dalton Shell, explains why voting is important to him. Voting is important to me on a lot of different levels,” Shell said. “In a little over 200 years, Americans have made tremendous strides to ensure that the electoral process is open and equal. That has only been able to morph and develop because people took to the ballot box.”
Associate Professor of Political Science at Milligan, Dr. Amy Edmonds, explains how voting can keep politicians accountable, and why voting goes deeper than just who wins the election. “A lot of Americans don’t realize that politicians pay very close attention not just to who wins, but how close a vote is,” Edmonds said. “ So, even if you vote against the person who ends up winning, the fact that you reduced their margin of victory can help to change the positions they take and the way they communicate.”
Edmonds also explains that politicians pay attention to which groups of people are more likely to vote. Citing the 2016 presidential election: voter turnout was 61% of the voting age population and voter turnout for ages 18-29 was 46%. “Because younger people are less likely to vote, the issues they care about, like student loans, tend to get less attention,” Edmonds said. “The US is a democracy, and although change happens slowly, it does happen and how people vote makes a big difference to our country over time.”
To watch the corresponding video story and hear more student perspectives, click here.
For more information about voting in Tennessee, please visit govotetn.gov.