Renee Josse de Lisle/The Cougar
With early voting for the midterm elections reaching record-breaking numbers, overall voter turnout in Texas is on track to surpass the state’s previous record.
For many UH students, their personal investment in policies, especially around immigration, is motivating them to engage.
“Everything involving ICE, because my family is immigrants, really stands out to me,” said media production sophomore Ye-Jin Lee.
For other students, their interest in voting stems from both their personal and academic backgrounds.
These experiences shape which policies they hope to see change in the near future.
“I’m Mexican-American so it really affects my community and it’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” said communications senior Emilee Gurrola. “I’m a public leadership minor, so I kind of deal with looking into public policy and so I’m really hoping for change pretty soon, like the next few years.”
For many young voters, the upcoming midterm elections are an opportunity to correct the issues they feel have remained unresolved in recent years.
They also emphasize hope for more political awareness and engagement, especially among people their age.
“I think people in general should at least be aware of what’s happening in the world,” said computer science junior Chembian Ganeshan. “Anybody in general, to be honest, at least after you’re 18.”
Beyond political awareness, students also emphasize the importance of consistently participating in elections.
Gurrola expressed disagreement with the idea that anyone should abstain from voting just because they believe neither political party addresses their concerns well enough.
“I feel like that rhetoric is really misleading because if you don’t vote, you’re not gonna see a change, and a lot of the times the people who say they don’t vote are saying there’s no change,” Gurrola said. “So how are you gonna see a change if you don’t vote? Everyone says ‘my vote doesn’t matter’. But it does.”
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