ALEX HOBEN
editor-in-chief
alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu

Some TCC students are not confident in the voting system right before midterms.

With early voting starting in Texas on Oct. 24, students are discussing the way votes are submitted and how it will affect this year’s election.

Due to the scrutiny the voting process has faced in recent years, especially following the 2020 presidential election due to misinformation spread about mail-in votes, some students have expressed concerns about the upcoming midterm cycle.

SE student Matthew Jewell said he’s been discussing the election with his peers and the main thing they’ve noticed is the influx of new voters who are ready to participate in this voting cycle, but may not have done the research about the candidates.

“It scares you because many citizens are coming to the polls uninformed,” he said.

Jewell said that the voting process should change so it is less restrictive as a whole.

“I understand online voting is not used due to security reasons, but we have so many who are unable to vote because of a myriad of reasons,” Jewell said. “The voter suppression in states like Texas are very restrictive and cause us to not vote.”

Jewell said his main distrust is because of how long the registration process takes to be able to vote, and how the importance of the different elections has shifted. He said that while the presidential and midterm elections garner more attention, the local ones will have more of an impact.

“The smaller county elections are more for our citizens to work and have their voices heard,” Jewell said.

NE student Bryon Broadway says that while the voting system isn’t perfect, it is fine as it is for now and what really matters is the election itself and its impact.

“Since 2016, influencers, money-makers, and power seekers have been driven to take command of our democracy in both parties and suck all that makes this nation great dry. Every election is important, but this will decide the fate of our democracy’” he said.

SE student Sev Lohse is worried about how difficult it has gotten to go to the voting booth.

“It’s gotten unreasonably hard,” he said. “With all the barriers imposed last election, if you can’t take a day off work or school for this, you just don’t get to vote.”

Lohse also said that he is questioning whether the voting has any importance in the first place. He said that he sees voting as more of a data collection system for politicians to analyze rather than a way to figure out how they’re supposed to act for the public.

“I think it does give elected officials an idea of what the general populace wants, but it also gives them the chance to completely ignore that and do whatever they want,” Lohse said.

Lohse said that since the politicians aren’t made to enforce the wants of the community there isn’t much use in it other than the data, but he thinks that voters should have a more direct impact.

“In an ideal world, it’d change just about everything,” he said. “We’d be able to actually propose issues instead of just voting on a bunch of watered-down premade ideas. But in reality, I think they know how to swing whatever vote they get in their favor.”

Despite all of this, Lohse still encourages those who are able to vote to go participate in the midterms.

“There aren’t any perfect options, and voting for the lesser evil does hurt, I know, but expressing our preferences on the local level is how we move upward, as slow as it’s going to be,” he said. “Nobody will blame you if you physically can’t vote, but please do try your best.”