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Monday, O c tober 26, 2020 | Vo l u m e 1 2 5 | I s s u e 1 2
UNM students vote for first time during tumultuous election
From left to right, UNM Students Aarya Patel, Jacob Griego, JahJett-Lyn Chavez and Jordynn Sills Castillo.
By Gino Gutierrez @GGutierrez_48 It’s no secret that the 2020 election has been and will be unique compared to others in modern history. Amidst a pandemic and historic economic crisis, the issues facing voters have perhaps never been so varied and complex in living memory. An experience that is already
stressful for many new voters is now even more complicated, so the Daily Lobo sat down with five University of New Mexico first-time student voters to get an account of their experiences. Sophomores Jordynn Sills and JahJett-Lyn Chavez both shared mixed views on the election. “I’m definitely excited to vote for the first time and be a part of something this big, but now that (the election is) actually here, I’m not a big fan of the
Liam DeBonis / Daily Lobo / @LiamDeBonis
candidates,” Sills said. Chavez described her first voting experience as “the messiest, yet most exciting moment in my nearly adult life.” Chavez’s level of excitement was shared by freshman Aarya Patel, who said voting is a big deal. But like others, he found himself let down with the two major party choices in front of him in the presidential race. In contrast, sophomore Jacob Griego said the uncertainty sur-
rounding the outcome at the ballot box outweighed whatever excitement he might have felt toward casting his first vote. “I’m too worried about the election to be excited,” Griego said. “I’m happy that I finally get to put my opinion into the world, make a difference in my own way and have my voice finally be heard, but there’s a lot of paranoia.” As for senior Elizabeth Wilkinson, the decision of whether to vote at all was one she found her-
Analysis: What to watch for on election night By Liam DeBonis @LiamDeBonis With Election Day just over a week away, President Donald Trump’s odds are looking grim. In national polling averages, Joe Biden led by 9.2 percentage points as of the evening of Oct. 25. Traditionally red states like Georgia and Arizona have turned into fierce campaign battlegrounds. Biden signaled his confidence in a tweet on Oct. 19, telling his supporters “let’s finish strong” while
Trump publicly mused about the likelihood of his defeat at a campaign rally just days earlier. But while polling averages may drive the Biden camp to prophesize victory, voters should be aware that Trump still has a shot at winning the 2020 presidential election. Political analysis website FiveThirtyEight estimated the president’s chances of winning on Oct. 23 as “a little worse than the chances of rolling a 1 on a six-sided die and a little better than the chances that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles.” If
you’re like me, you’ll be compulsively rolling your own dice at home and checking the LA forecast for the next nine days. So what should you expect to see on Election Day? First, the election may not be decided by Nov. 3. Given the increase in mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic, some states likely won’t have a clear winner until days after the election. Many states have already started to pre-process their ballots, which includes removing ballots from their envelopes, checking required signatures and
preparing them to be counted. However, a few states are legally required to wait until the day of the election to start pre-processing early ballots regardless of how many are received — thus raising the very real possibility that we may not know who won those states on Nov. 3. Research conducted by the Pew Research Center suggested that Democrats will vote more by mail than Republican voters in this election. This has led some to predict a “red mirage” in states that don’t
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self grappling with. “I was pretty conflicted on whether or not I really, really wanted to vote,” Wilkinson said. “In my opinion, I really don’t agree with either Trump or Biden’s policies — I didn’t want to vote for someone just because they were (aligned with) a certain party.” Eventually, Wilkinson determined that her perceived duty to remove Trump from office
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Inside this Lobo DAVIS: Nonprofits, election officials face prospect of voter intimidation BOWEN: Elections 101: An interview with elections expert Lonna Atkeson RAMOS: Progressive legislative candidates again push for repeal of anti-abortion law KLEINHANS: Potential Biden win floats possibility of Governor Morales DAILY LOBO: State Bond Endorsements
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