My Very First Voting Experience

Posted by on Nov 8, 2012 in RCL | 2 comments

Like all of the other freshman at this school, this election was my first experience with voting. The excitement on campus about the election culminated in the most anxious day of this month so far: election day. Unfortunately, I decided to vote through absentee ballot so I missed the experience of actually using a voting machine. I woke up on Tuesday anxious about the election and it only got worse as I watched the coverage in my room with a group of friends. Someone should have filmed me as I screamed at the TV, ranted to my mother, and almost had a conniption when I thought that Romney had won New Jersey.

This is the first time that I have been actively involved in the process of the election and politics as a whole. I have had many intelligent conversations with a host of people concerning the debates, the candidates, and the issues of this election. I think that this election has provided a great opportunity to exercise one’s civic duty and continue to do so in later years. Through this election I have seen rhetoric working in good and bad ways. The slander I have seen among some politicians is such an abuse of rhetoric and only hinders the opportunity for a fair rhetoric platform.

2 Comments

  1. I find it interesting how so many students did absentee. My roommate did it as well but unfortunately never got the letter in the mail so she was unable to vote (like me haha). I’m also jealous that you got to watch every step of the polls closing on TV. I had a meeting until 11 so I was scrolling my twitter newsfeed on my phone, discreetly, looking at results. I agree that voting is a civic duty because one check could decide the fate of your country. The saying “every vote counts” is so true on so many levels. Swing states are perfect examples. At first, they are neither red nor blue so a single vote could change the turnout of that state.

  2. I think you’ve done a good job of describing how you felt during the voting process because we all share the same experience of this action. I think it’s great that you used an absentee ballot because it shows your connection with your home city and you are much more familiar, I’d assume, with your own area’s problems than the ones in State College. Elections tend to breed a lot of intelligent conversations between college students and I like/don’t like how even people who don’t seem to ever care about politics begin to care about it during election season. I guess moreover it’s the idea that people are getting interested and informed, but it’s like they’re bandwagon fans. However, I think it could also be the fact that we’re all of voting age and when we actually have a choice we will discuss a lot more. Great post!

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar