Nov. 6 marks the day that some Orono students will be taking their first plunge into the voting process. According to the Gallup Poll on Oct. 13, 49 percent of likely voters favored Obama and 47 percent favored Romney.

The Republican candidate running for president is Mitt Romney, with Paul Ryan alongside him. For the Democratic party, Barack Obama is the incumbent candidate, with Joe Biden as his vice president.

“I’m very familiar with both of the candidates. I’ve been following their campaigns closely due to the fact that politics are often talked about in my house,” said senior Madeline Wagner.

This isn’t always the case. Senior Danny Willson said,“I’m briefed on both the candidates and their campaigns, but politics are hardly ever talked about in my household.”

Most cities will have polling available in either a city hall or police station.
“I’m familiar with the polling process,” said senior Mitch Skatter, “although I’ve never actually been to the local polling place.”

There are new regulations and requirements of voters this year. One of them is photo ID. Thirty-four states have introduced this law, which requires voters to present photo identification in order to vote. Minnesota is one of them.
State legislatures have been cracking down on the rules of voting in order to prevent fraudulent votes. According to the New York Times, Republican legislators believe that this offers a way to preserve the virtue of the ballot box. On the other hand, the Democratic legislature says that “the changes have little to do with fraud prevention and more to do with placing obstacles in the way of possible Democratic voters, including young people and minorities.”

The Minnesota legislature has passed the bill which requires all Minnesotans to present a verified photo ID, such as a driver’s license, to vote in person. Although this seems easy enough to do, 11 percent of U.S. citizens do not own a government-issued photo, which adds up to more than 21 million citizens.

The majority of this number are “young people” (ages 18-29). The demographics of voting for these ages are lower than they have ever been. According to a poll in the article It’s All Politics, only 58 percent of 18-29 year olds are intending to vote in the 2012 presidential election this year.

“I am planning on voting in the 2012 election, and I do believe it’s my duty to do so. Do I believe that by voting I’m making a difference for my country? Not necessarily,” said senior Jeff Sauer.

Anna Anderson is the News Editor for The Spartan Speaks.

To reach Anna, email her at [email protected]