Today, students at James Madison University flocked to Godwin Hall to place their votes. WMRA’s Olivia DeWan reports.
Students at JMU headed to the polls for midterm elections, encouraging their peers to exercise their right to vote. Brady Dunn, a sophomore, expressed why he believed it is so important for students to be civically active.
BRADY DUNN: Students should come out and vote because it’s one of the best ways our voices can be heard. This is just a great way that we can make change; is by electing people who advocate for us, by electing people who make decisions and represent what we believe in personally.
The race for Senate features incumbent Mark Warner, a Democrat, running against Republican Bert Mizusawa. Students registered to vote in Harrisonburg can vote for Democrat Beth Macy or Republican Ben Cline as the 6th District representative. Casey Calabia, a senior at JMU, said she was voting Democrat this year.
CASEY CALABIA: I voted for Beth Macy and Senator Warner. … I’ve gotten the chance to speak with both of them while they’ve been on campus, and they listened to what concerns I had, they answered questions I had about what we're doing overseas, what’s going on with gas prices, and what sort of protections we might be lacking in civil rights right now, and I think they’re both great candidates to go out and represent my interests.
Thomas Dickinson, a sophomore at JMU, is voting Republican.
THOMAS DICKINSON: I voted for Mizusawa and Ben Cline, and that is really just because of conservative values. I feel like that a lot of the people, a lot of the platforms, that Warner and Beth Macy are running on aren’t what’s best for Virginia. Especially Beth Macy… you know she said herself that she can’t move without the JMU vote. She’s relying on people who aren’t living here really full time to then win for a district of people who are here full time.
At Godwin Hall, the stream of students heading to the polls demonstrated their desire to take part in shaping the country's future.
Full disclosure, Reporter Olivia DeWan is also a student at JMU.
