In the United States, one of the most emphasized and important subjects taught to kids is how important voting is. Regardless of this however, voter turnout among the younger voters always seems to be around 50%. This means that nearly half of the youngest generation of voters do not have a say in the future of our governing body.

“You need to have your voice heard. If you don’t have your voice heard, then the foundations for our very Democracy can’t properly function,” Senior Jesse Liu said.

“If you look at it from the point of view of saying, ‘Ok, I’m just one person. My vote’s not going to matter’. If everyone looked at it that way then it would matter. You’d go from just one individual not voting to a bunch of people. So if you all focus and say that voting is significant and it matters then it will matter,” Senior Donald Wunsch said.

To register to vote in Missouri, there are a few requirements that must be met: the person registering must be a Missouri resident, a citizen of the United States, and must be at least 17 and a half years old and turning 18 either on or before election day. If they meet all of these requirements, then they can either register online, register via the mail, or visit the county clerk’s office and register in person.

“How significant is [voting]? I’d say it’s pretty significant. When I sign up to vote, I’ll vote, and then that’ll be significant because other people will vote as well and I’d like my voice to be heard as well,” Wunsch said.

Everyone has different reasons behind which candidate they’re voting for. Most of the news stations today have the purpose of providing you with those reasons. Students all have different factors, either being family or, on a more facetious scale, which candidate just ‘looks’ better.

“My family and how I grew up, that’s going to be a bias for me no matter how much I try to eliminate it. But, you know, reason. That’s another factor. Of course, the current events of today, if a politician is going to talk about how they want to resolve some of the current events [I] might listen to him or her, more than an opponent who is more laid back about said current events,” Wunsch said.

A common conception is that if you choose to not vote, then you don’t have the right to voice your opinion about the turnout of the election. However, sometimes people feel that the candidates are just too horrible to even consider voting for. It’s a tricky situation-choosing between having your voice heard, or sticking with your morals. Because of this, most people choose to just abstain.

“I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily bad just because, especially with the election of today you have to pick the lesser of two evils, as much as I hate to say it if it was an election that came down to two crappy candidates then I don’t know that I’d want to see either one of them enter office, but one of them is going to enter anyways. So I guess if you didn’t vote it wouldn’t matter, but if you did vote at least you’d have a say in it,” Wunsch said.