In America’s current political climate, youth voting has been more emphasized through social media campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and school districts. The Northshore School District is no exception, with North Creek admin and ASB advocating for eligible seniors to vote in the November 8th General Election.

Eligible seniors were surveyed about their voting patterns and experiences. Data from the survey revealed that only around 56 percent of surveyed seniors voted in the most recent election. The number of seniors who voted in the primaries was even less, with only 12.5 percent doing so. Seniors who didn’t vote cited many reasons such as forgetting to vote, not completing voter registration, or being too lazy to.

Some of the surveyed seniors who did vote expressed positive feedback on their experience with voting for the first time.

“It was fun making a difference. I blasted the star spangled banner while I voted,” senior Shreya Shaji said.

“”[It] was odd, didn’t have state id or driver’s license so I ran around like a panicked chicken for a bit after my birthday in September, did get registered and dropped off my mail ballot though,” stated an anonymous surveyed senior.

It was not all positive though, several responses described the experience as negative.

“It feels boring and lame,” stated another senior in the same survey.

Many seniors also gained new insights about the election process. Through voter’s guide, parents, and school, seniors became educated on different candidates and how to vote.

“It was interesting, seeing how detailed the ballot was. I wasn’t expecting to actually see like votes for like, a law or something. I think there was something like that on there. And it was, I was able to actually look at the advertisements more that were flooding the mail for like, political candidates,” senior Abigail Schidler said.

In the survey, many seniors had mixed opinions about whether or not their vote

mattered.

“It’s very useless as there are almost always millions of other people voting as well. Besides, we use the majoritarian voting system in the U.S. which makes it much more useless,” one student said. Shaji, however, feels differently about the process of voting.

“I think it’s important for the theory of it, like voting to be a citizen. But if you look at the district I live in like the legislative district, my opinion aligns with the majority of the district,” Shaji said.