By Chinonso Maduforo
According to projections, voter turnout in the Nov. 6 election may have been the highest in years for a non-presidential election.
The United States Election Project estimated that about 49 percent of the voting-eligible population cast their vote in the past election. That is a projection of 116 million ballots so far, according to the Election Project — with many ballots still being counted in states like California.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement estimated that 31 percent of young voters showed up to vote, compared to 21 percent in 2014. Young voters also showed a preference for Democratic candidates, according to CIRCLE.
In Maryland, the State Board of Elections released an unofficial turnout report. The report estimated that about 55 percent of voters voted, not including provisional or absentee ballots. Breaking down the party lines, 55 percent of voters in Prince George’s County voted Democratic while about 45 percent voted Republican. Thirty-seven percent of voters were unaffiliated with a party.
Students at the University of Maryland flocked to the Grand Ballroom last Tuesday to cast their vote. Others were running around trying to find stamps to mail in their absentee ballots.
Gideon Epstein, the SGA’s committee chair for civic and governmental affairs said, “In relation to past numbers and national trends, we know that in 2014, UMD had a 19 percent voting rate.” According to Epstein, the TerpsVote coalition aimed to get to a 30 percent voting rate this year.
“Based on national trends, I would say I’m pretty confident that we’re going to hit that,” Epstein said.
Epstein said national statistics show that youth voter turnout has significantly increased. He estimated that the turnout rate for student voters would be at about 35 percent.
Michelle Benalcazar, a junior architecture major, voted for the first time last Tuesday. As to the results, Benalcazar said, “I personally am satisfy with the outcome for Maryland.”
Republican Larry Hogan was re-elected as governor. He is known to have fairly conservative views, but “he’s pretty unbiased when it comes to speaking up about the things that we care about, so I’m not upset that he won or anything,” said Benalcazar.
Like many of her Democratic peers, she had hoped that Ben Jealous would win, but she sees the House win as a “leg-up.”
“At least we have something going for us right now,” Benalcazar said. She hopes that this “lead” will end some of the “crazy legislations that have been trying to come through.”
Jeremiah Olabosipo, a sophomore bioengineering major, voted for Jealous and was disappointed that he didn’t win.
“I believed in what he could’ve done, especially for education,” Olabosipo said.
David Franco, a senior architecture major, voted for Larry Hogan. Franco is a fiscal Republican, and disagrees with many of President Donald Trump’s views.
As an immigrant himself, his family came here illegally and it took 12 years for them to complete the paperwork. He sees Trump’s response to the migrant caravan as a “political stunt to tell people that ‘hey, they’re all bad people, they’re going to come here, they’re going to take over our stuff,’ and it’s not like that. Those people are running away from persecution and things like that.”
The results of the midterm elections left a divided Congress — with Democrats winning the House and Republicans maintaining control of the Senate. Franco said he wishes Democrats had won the Senate, too.
“These next two years, I feel like nothing’s going to get done,” Franco said. “The House is going to pass something, the Senate’s going to reject it. The Senate’s going to pass something, it’s just going to go back and forth.” Franco hopes that there is some change, but from the outcome of the election, all he sees is a higher probability of gridlock.
“I just want to see more truth in our government, and right now we’re not seeing any truth from our president,” said Franco.