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Every four years, a high-stakes election is held in the United States. It is advertised for months, features long lists of candidates with the potential to influence our lives, and it could determine whether Democrats or Republicans are in control of the federal government. 

If the Presidential election is all that came to mind, you might want to keep reading.

We’re talking about the Midterm Elections. They are happening on November 6 this year, and the stakes are higher than usual.

 

Why it Matters

The midterm elections are federal elections which happen halfway between presidential elections. The big differences between the two is that in the midterms, voters determine which candidates from their states get a seat in Congress, and it is also when citizens elect their states’ governor. It is up to the voters to elect all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of U.S. Senators each midterm. These two are what make up the chamber.

What this means is that the citizens of each state basically have direct power over who is representing them at a federal level. If voters elect mostly Democrats or mostly Republicans to the House or the Senate, then that is the party that will have majority control over the entire chamber.

From there, any legislation that gets proposed will go to them. Whichever party is in control is more likely to approve bills that suit their ideologies and deny bills that are opposed to them. To reach the president’s office, legislation has to pass in both the House and the Senate.

According to Bryan McQuide, professor and department chair of political science here at Grand View, this election in particular could lead to big changes in our country.

“If voters are unhappy with Trump and they vote in the Democrats (to be) in charge of Congress, then the Democrats will act as a counterweight to Trump,” McQuide said.

Currently, the House, the Senate and the presidency are controlled by Republicans. That means that if enough voters who want change make it out to the polls by November 6, the House and the Senate could potentially be switched to have Democrats in charge, which could make a big difference in legislation passed.

The Problem at Hand

The issue is that midterm elections do not get as much publicity or voter turnout as the presidential elections. According to Fairvote.org, in the 2012 presidential election, 58.2 percent of eligible citizens voted. In 2016, it rose to 60 percent, while the midterm elections of 2014 showed that only 35.9 percent of eligible citizens participated.

According to McQuide, a possible reason for this is that people tend to focus on the President at times of need, such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. They forget that problem- solving does not usually come directly from the President.

Additionally, for more local issues, such as the flooding in Iowa this summer, state governors play an important role in finding solutions. For example, with the floods, Governor Kim Reynolds was the first person notified, not President Trump.

Anna Determann, a student at GV and lead ambassador of the Vote Everywhere Program on campus, said that Trump can do a lot, but “generally those things aren’t the things that are affecting us (locally).”

The midterm elections tend to get less publicity in general, so when voters do not get to know their candidates as closely as they do for the presidential election, it may lead to reduced voter turnout.

According to Sachin Gupta, another GV student, “When voting, I base it more off the person than I do the party.”

For those who vote more based on party, the issue with young people is that some are not aware of what party they align with. Both Determann and Gupta said they adopted their own party affiliations from their families growing up, but those whose families didn’t discuss politics at the dinner table or whose views differ from those of their parents may be at a loss.

According to research done by The Atlantic, about 40 percent of first-year college students in the U.S. consider themselves non-partisan. This leaves a large percentage of potential young voters who may hold off on voting since they do not know which side they identify with.

McQuide said that part of this issue may be due to diminishing social studies education in the U.S. McQuide’s wife, who previously taught elementary school in Illinois, said that where she taught, students were given social studies lessons a mere half hour, twice a week. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 23 percent of eighth-graders in 2014 were found to be proficient on the topic of civics.   

Another potential blame for this is the overwhelming amount of misinformation in the media. Certain outlets align with political parties and ideologies, and if a student is only paying attention to one outlet, they are less likely to be exposed to the opposing side’s arguments.

This phenomenon is referred to as the echo chamber effect, and it also includes resistance towards ideas that don’t reflect your own opinions.

Much of the misinformation young people see comes from social media outlets, including blogs and fake news channels that do not reveal their sources or follow basic reporting practices such as verification and objective reporting. Additionally, their main goal is entertainment or persuasion, and for college students who spend a lot of time on social media, this misinformation is often all they are exposed to in order to form a political stance.

“(Those sites) just put those things out there because they know that’s what people want to see, whether they are true or not,” Determann said.

Fortunately, according to McQuide, those with a college education tend to have more political knowledge than the rest of the population. 

Those Who Vote & Those Who Don’t

“For so long, politicians have ignored the voices of young people because they don’t vote,” McQuide said.

Instead, they listen to the age group with the higher voting percentage, which is the elderly. According to Census.gov, 70.9 percent of those 65 and older, or about 33,314 citizens, voted in the 2016 presidential election, while only 43 percent of 18– to 24-year-old citizens voted, which was about 11,560 people.

According to McQuide, the elderly typically do not care as much about social issues, student loans or loan forgiveness, which are topics that directly affect college students.

These issues also include the #MeToo movement, medical reform that could affect disabled or low-income family members, camera speeding tickets and more. 

If college students want lawmakers to turn the focus toward issues they care about, they must vote.

For example, medical reform could end up having an effect indirectly on young people, even though the topic seems to mostly affect the older population.

“If the cost is greater than we’ve anticipated, the legislature has to pull the money from somewhere,” McQuide said. “They may increase the fines for speeding to help pay for the judicial system because they have to pay for the medical costs.”

Fortunately, Iowa makes it relatively easy to vote. It does not take a lot of time, and a lot of large cities or counties have early voting open before November 6. Polk County is holding early voting at several community locations such as libraries and city halls.

Additionally, Iowa’s Voter ID law only requires that you show a valid ID at the polls. Valid IDs include a driver’s license, a passport, a military ID, a voter ID card and more.

To educate yourself on who to vote for when you arrive to the polls, there are several resources available. One option is the documents that Annah Hackett and Anna Determann included in campus emails about voting. The documents have charts explaining key issues and where certain candidates stand on the issues.

Other resources include apps and websites such as National Public Radio (NPR) or Ballotopedia. These sites strive for objectivity and are free to use. NPR has the option of push notifications, a smart way to stay in the loop of what’s going on around the country. Ballotopedia gives details of exactly who to expect on your precinct’s ballot by category and party, giving you an easy way to look up candidates as needed.

One thing to keep in mind when using the internet to learn about candidates is steering clear of extremely biased websites and channels. For example, CNN tends to be skewed far left, or extremely liberal, while Fox News leans far right, which is extremely conservative. By paying attention to one side, viewers run the risk of thinking that there is only one way of correctly  looking at things, and that may not be the case.

“Just like we encourage students to look at multiple sources in classes, we must do the same thing with politics,” McQuide said.