Abortion, Palestine among issues on students’ minds for March primary

Bri Stevens, Contributing Writer 

Virginia’s primaries are taking place on Tuesday, March 5 — also known as Super Tuesday — according to the Virginia Department of Elections. The VCU community shared their views on the upcoming elections.

Nicole Patterson, the assistant director for student organizations and one of the advisors for VCU Votes, said it is important to check voter registration status at vote.elections.virginia.gov.

Keith Balmer, general registrar for Richmond City, said students can find out where to vote by visiting rva.gov/elections.

Balmer said if a student is registered in Richmond using their college address, they must update their registration every time they move residences. If a student is registered at home, then they must vote at home or use an absentee ballot.

“College students tend to be transient, they move around quite a bit, and whenever they move, they need to update their registration,” Balmer said.

Connor Eppley, a third-year political science student and VCU Votes student, said he votes in every election to ensure his voice is heard.

“The fact that you voted, it’s on your voter record and elected officials can see what elections you voted in and they’re more likely to take your concerns more seriously,” Eppley said.

Destinee Tola, a fourth-year biology student, said it’s vital to vote in the primaries because it affects the general election.

“It’s very important to vote, even in your area district because it could potentially be the person you want to vote for during the general election,” Tola said.

An issue that’s at the forefront of many students’ minds is Palestine and the large role the U.S. is playing in it, Tola said.

“They’re not supporting Palestine and giving Israel military weapons to kill Palestinians for no good reason,” Tola said. “Everything is just about money when it comes to the U.S.”

Tola also said there should be “more rules when it comes to regulating guns.”

Suhylah Sharif, a fourth-year creative advertising student at VCU, said how Palestine is being treated will impact her vote.

“Taking accountability for actions and being real to the point of, we are funding a genocide in the Middle East of the Palestinians,” Sharif said. “I’m not going to vote for somebody that is denying that.”

Sharif said Trump won’t be on the ballot because he’ll be in jail.

“I don’t think that Trump is going to get there,” Sharif said. “No, I think that Trump is going to go to jail.”

Jonathan Sanchez, a fourth-year studying exercise science, said abortion is a key issue.

“As a Christian, abortion is an important issue for me, and I’m probably going to vote for Trump because of that, even though I kind of like Biden more,” Sanchez said.

Maji Umar, a second-year health services student, said women’s reproductive rights are important.

“My main thing is women’s reproductive rights,” Umar said. “Certain parties are against women’s rights to their bodies and what they want to do with them. I’m leaning toward the person who wouldn’t have as much of a negative impact on that.”

Levi Thompson, a third-year computer science student, said healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community has become inaccessible.

“One of my main concerns is healthcare, as someone who is LGBT, especially as a trans man. A lot of the issues surrounding that have only really been getting worse,” Thompson said. “It’s becoming very unaffordable and very unavailable.”

Vee Civil, a second-year psychology student, said an important issue is race relations and talking about race and critical race theory.

Faye Healy, a second-year kinetic imaging student, said there shouldn’t be financial barriers between students and education.

“I think everyone should be able to have an education, and so with that should come a lot of debt relief so that there’s more access to it,” Healy said.

Healy said neither candidate is suitable to be president.

“De facto I would have to vote for Biden because he’s the lesser of two evils, but I don’t think either of them are fit,” Healy said.

Sift Ahmad, a fourth-year biology major, said Nikki Haley is “cut from the same cloth” as Trump and that this election will end badly no matter the result.

“I’m not looking forward to this one because I see a bad end on both sides,” Ahmad said.

Amanda Wintersieck, a VCU political science professor, said older people vote at a higher rate because voting has become a routine for them, whereas younger people haven’t developed this habit. College students are also more likely to move their residence, which causes the hassle of updating registration and locating the correct polling place, she said.

“It’s important to acknowledge that we put hurdles in front of young people to vote that we don’t place in front of older people,” Wintersieck said. “Young people want to vote at the same rate as older people.”

Wintersieck said through the efforts of VCU Votes, voter turnout among VCU students has increased.

“Compared to a decade ago, VCU students are registered to vote and vote at a much higher rate than many other students,” Wintersieck said. “The data shows that we went from a student body turnout of 20-30% to now being well over 70%.”

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are both behaving as incumbents in this election, Wintersieck said.

“This year we have this weird incumbency effect, where we have a sitting president, Joe Biden, who is running unchallenged for the primary, and you have a former sitting president, Donald Trump, who is also behaving like an incumbent,” Wintersieck said.

Wintersieck said this isn’t a typical primary season since both candidates are well known.

“There isn’t really a choice on either side, so you don’t see a lot of the effects that you would typically see,” Wintersieck said. “Excitement and energy that voters get by getting to know new candidates.”

Wintersieck said she doubts the capability of either candidate because of their age.

“The added layer to that is that Donald Trump is committed to authoritarian values, it’s terrifying,” Wintersieck said. “To have a presidential candidate who fundamentally doesn’t understand U.S. or world history to the extent of understanding the role that NATO has played in ensuring that we haven’t had World War III.”