The U.S. presidential primaries are a series of contests between presidential candidates to determine who will represent each party in the presidential election in November. These primaries take place from February to June in all 50 states. The New Hampshire primary will take place Tuesday, February 11.
As a student, I strongly believe that if you are able to vote, then you should make the time to have your say in the election. I believe this because I have noticed that many people my age are very unhappy with the state of our country and want change. To that I respond with: what better way to bring about change than voting on who the next face of our country could be.
Also, for many people who are 18, 19, or 20 years old, this will be the first chance to take part in our democracy. I am firmly of the state of mind that you cannot complain about the way things are if you did not vote because you did not even try to make things change.
One quote that I particularly like is, “If it is to be, it is up to me,” which is basically saying that you need to take charge of the things you want and try your hardest to make those things happen. Some people also believe that their vote doesn’t matter, but in reality so many people feeling that way is harmful and gets in the way of truly influencing an election.
It is especially important to vote in New Hampshire due to it being a swing state, which means that the state can realistically be won over by a Democrat or Republican. This holds particular importance to candidates because they believe the swing states to be the most important, hence why we have seen so many candidates come to Keene to say what they’re about.
Also, when candidates win here it is usually seen as them being highly in favor among people declared as independent. It also says a lot about how the candidate could do in the general election.
Due to this, New Hampshire makes it easier to vote by not having a closed primary. This means that past party registration has no effect on you being able to vote, which allows anybody who is already undeclared or recently became an undeclared voter to vote in either party’s primary.
However, New Hampshire is not a fully open primary, which means that people already registered with a party on voting day cannot vote in the other primary.
There will be free transportation to polling locations for all KSC students. The Democratic primary will be between Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer and Tulsi Gabbard.
The Republican primary will be between Donald Trump, Bill Weld, Joe Walsh and Rocky De La Fuente. No matter what candidate or party you vote for, I strongly encourage as many people to do so as possible.
DISCLAIMER: This article is the sole opinion of Cristian Valentin
Cristian Valentin can be contacted at cvalentin@kscequinox.com
