The Importance of Voting

Iowa women discuss the importance of voting and what the 2020 election means to first-time voters.

Transcript

I feel like my voice should be heard and one way to do that is by voting.

Will you vote?

Yes!

Yes I will.

Yes I will vote when I’m old enough to.

Absolutely, yeah. I’m very excited to, yeah.

Yes, most definitely. I definitely will do my research and look at the different candidates and their stances on different topics.

I think other people should vote because they have a chance to make a difference in who is elected and who isn’t, and that’s kind of a big deal.

I feel like everybody should take advantage of being able to vote, you know what I mean because some people can’t vote, you know what I mean. Like in other countries people aren’t able to vote. So me not voting would be kind of messed up in not taking advantage of the opportunity and being able to have a say in who does what.

I’m voting for people who still can’t vote. I’m voting for people who still don’t vote. I think that voting is one of our strongest weapons that we have as people.

My family can’t vote because a lot of them are undocumented and they’re fixing their papers, a lot of them are under DACA and stuff, so they still haven’t been able to vote. But me being born here, this is a big thing to me because I want to vote for my family, and I want to vote for myself.

I think we have to make our voices heard. If we don’t vote and things go wrong, it’s our own fault.

I think people, this is just opinion, probably took voting more seriously than now. I know there’s quite a swell of people or increase of young people voting, but I also know there are many young people who do not vote.

Younger people, we don’t usually vote as much because there isn’t a lot of political efficacy among the younger groups and so it’s just important for me to use my voice when I have that opportunity.

It’s pretty shameful that we vote in such small percentages.

And I vote because that's what democracy is about. If you don't vote, we're gonna lose our democracy, quite frankly.

What does it mean to you that you’ll be voting for the first time 100 years after the 19th amendment was ratified?

It feels very, very powerful. I’m very excited.

I just think that’s so crazy. It’s not something that like I’d really ever thought about or realized or was aware of.

It means a lot. I think this election shows us in many ways how far we’ve come since the early 1900s but also the fact that women’s issues are such an important part of campaigning and of the candidates platforms, showing how far we still have to go.

Being able to vote from 100 years from where women stood and said I’m not being treated human enough and being able to being treated as a human and vote, is a big thing.