‘Our opinions matter.’ First-time voters head to the polls in Centre County on Election Day

When polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, Jenny Heim was number 53 in line, ready to cast her vote in an election for the first time.

Heim, a senior at State High, is one of the many first-time voters across Pennsylvania to cast a ballot in one of the nation’s most competitive swing states this election cycle. The importance of her vote was not lost on Heim, especially as recent polls show the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a dead heat.

“I think that especially youth voters have a big impact,” she said, standing in line at her precinct at Fairbrook United Methodist Church. “And I think it’s really exciting that a lot of us get to vote this election, because it’s such a big election, and Pennsylvania is such a swing state this election.”

Pennsylvania’s status as a swing state has brought major attention from both campaigns, with both Harris and Trump holding rallies in Pittsburgh on Monday. The nationwide focus on the state led many out-of-state Penn State students to register in Pennsylvania rather than their home states.

Out of the 20 first-time voters the CDT spoke to at Penn State’s polling location at the HUB-Robeson Center, half said they made sure to register in Pennsylvania where they felt their vote would have the most impact.

Lily Collins, an out-of-state student, said the pressure on Pennsylvania voters makes the opportunity to cast her ballot a little more exciting.

“I’ve been really looking forward to getting to exercise this right, and to be able to do it in such a monumental way in my first election feels really cool,” Collins said. “I’m really happy to be a part of history in that way.”

Many students said their professors moved classes online or canceled them altogether for Election Day, following Faculty Senate’s guidance that encouraged professors to offer asynchronous classes on Tuesday to allow students to vote or work the polls without having to worry about attending in-person classes.

Although many voters on campus said they felt the impact was vital, the ways first-time voters received their information on candidates differed greatly. Some said they watched the presidential debates or interviews, some got their information through the news or through ad campaigns, and one voter said they formed their opinion from videos and influencers on TikTok.

Johan Acevedo-Gonzalez, 18, said he consulted several sources to make up his mind about each candidate, along with using surveys and quizzes to show what candidate fit his personal values and policy issues.

“I try to definitely go to those non-partisan websites, like government websites, some of them, would you like tell you a little bit about what each candidate has to offer,” Acevedo-Gonzalez said. “I watched a bunch of YouTube videos from both sides of people who are very pro one way and pro the other way. Just to hear what those biases sound like on both sides.”

Marlo Jae Lewis, a PSU freshman who cast her ballot for Harris, said she’s glad she made the cut-off for this election. She turned 18 in October and said she views the results of the election as potentially life-changing.

“Getting to have a say in that is really, really important, especially as someone who’s going to school and as a young woman,” Lewis said. “I think for me personally, this election means a lot.”

Mia Humphreys, a freshman first-time voter at PSU who voted by mail for Trump earlier this fall, said the youth vote is much more powerful than people realize.

“I think a lot of this generation feels like our vote doesn’t matter, but I feel like we can really change the tide of the election,” she said. “There’s so many young people that are able to register about this year and I think that they need to realize that we really are important, and our opinions matter.”

For many first-time voters, the ability to actively participate in the democratic system has given them a renewed sense of purpose when engaging with politics. Freshman Kendyl Bidinost said in previous years she’s felt on the outside looking in on election results. Although she is still nervous about the outcome of the election, she’s happy with her ability to participate.

“It feels different because typically, you would just watch the results, but now you’re actually part of the results, like you actually changed the results,” Bidinost said. “I no longer feel helpless watching the election results.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 12:46 PM.