Regardless of your political affiliation, there is no debate that this year’s presidential election will make history. It was arguably the most polarized election in American history, and there has been criticism towards mail-in and absentee ballots. 

Elections for lower levels of government have also made historic strides this year with the first transgender woman beig elected to the senate, and the first non-binary Muslim being elected to the House of Representatives. 

While most students here at Craig are unable to vote, political activity and affiliation has become more common among this generation. To help capture the voices of students that were unable to vote, the Criterion Staff interviewed students at random to get their thoughts on the election. 

Based on the randomized sample of students that were interviewed, the student body is generally democrat-leaning. The interviews indicate that a large majority of students are supporters of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

Where the sample of students primarily differ is on their motives for supporting Joe Biden. Some are supporters because they agree with his policies, and others are supporters because of a firm Anti-Trump stance. 

A prime example of this comes from Bridget Reilley, a freshman. 

“I would vote for Biden because personally I believe that Trump is xenophobic, Islamiphobic, homophobic, and a racist person who has shown us in 4 years that he can’t accomplish the job that he signed up to do.”

This narrative was common among the students interviewed. 

An anonymous source was very firm in this stance. “I am very against Trump and support Biden. I think Trump is a very sore loser.” 

Another student, Makennzie Mausser, went so far as to call president Trump, “very childish.” She thinks,  “The entire ‘you’ll have to remove me by force’ and demanding recounts and trying to sue the states because Biden is winning is completely ridiculous. He needs to chill out and gain some pride.”

This entails another major conversation starter surrounding the election: recounts. 

The President has demanded a recount in several states, some of which being Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. While most of his lawsuits have been turned down, there is a possibility of a recount in Wisconsin and Georgia is in the process of recounting their votes by hand. 

An anonymous student, as do many others, feels very strongly about the recount. 

“I think it is a big waste of money to do the recount because a recount hasn’t flipped the state elector in over 15 years- and it has cost 3.5 million dollars to perform a recount… There are a bunch of claims of other voter fraud that have been called out as false, so it just goes out to show that the Democratic party is more correct.”

Jamison Caley, a senior, agrees that mail-in ballots should be counted and are not an indicator of voter fraud. He says, “I think it would be pretty hard for him to cheat… They are mail in ballots, not fake ballots.”

Bridget Reilley also makes a clear point:  “Just like Biden, Trump deserves to have his votes counted because that’s a part of democracy… The rumor of missing votes is a problem because it interferes with the democracy that we set up.”

The major issue at hand with the allegations of voter fraud and recounts is the false information circulating on the internet. It can be difficult to decipher between the facts and falsities from those with a political agenda. 

That being said, some students here at Craig are in favor of doing recounts. 

An anonymous source says, “Honestly, if there are actually ballots being found in the trash, then I think that they should perform a recount.”

There are still many questions surrounding the outcome of this election, which can only be answered with time. Until that point, the student body, and the country, has said their piece.