Midterm Elections

for women in the 2020 election

for men in the 2020 election

were 18 and older in 2020 election

were 18-29 in 2020 election

in the state of indiana in 2020

Infographic by Rosemary Towler. Information from U.S. Census and Fairvote.

Preparing for the polls

FHS clubs get ready for midterm registration

Rosemary Towler towleros000@hsestudents.org

Midterm elections are starting all across the country and American citizens are preparing to vote for a plethora of things like the HSE school board, the Indiana House of Representatives, the Indiana Senate, the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate. Most of the runners’ campaigns include an emphasis on getting young people to vote, and Fishers is not an exception.

“I feel like it’s just important for kids to understand politics [because] it’s kind of like doing taxes, once you get to an adult age where you have to do taxes, you may not know how to do them and you’re freaking out once you get to that age,” the vice president of the young republicans club junior Tayla Koenig said. “You don’t know how to vote and you don’t know what you believe in. So I feel like it’s important to learn now.”

e election is on Nov. 8, and although most students are not eligible to vote, the school’s political clubs have plans to educate students on each party and what they stand for. is will allow students to develop their own opinion.

“Our goal is to obviously educate [students] about politics,” President of Democrats club junior Talia Mahmoud said. “Our bigger goal is to get people involved in their communities and for them to advocate for those issues that they care about.”

Both the Democrat and young Republican clubs wish to educate students on the midterms and how starting to solidify and progress their own opinion is important, even if they do not have the ability to vote yet.

“Most of our club members actually aren’t old enough to vote yet,” Mahmoud said. “So currently what we are working on is just getting them to see who’s on the ballot, even what their values and goals are and what their promises are. e [other] thing is just getting people who can vote [and] encouraging them to register to vote.”

While the democratic club is focusing on talking to their own members on voting, the Young Republicans Club is expanding their outreach around the school to speak to other students.

“I think our biggest thing that we’re doing is dialogue,” President of the Young Republican club Macy Froetschner said. “ e best way to tell someone in a respectful way what you believe is to converse with them like a human being.”

Due to Indiana’s political history it has been di cult for a democratic governor to win an election in Indiana and even harder for a democratic presidential candidate to win the electoral votes. In 2003, former governor Joseph E. Kernan was the last democrat to win a gubernatorial election. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama won Indiana which was the rst time in 44 years that a Democrat won Indiana’s electoral votes.

“Indiana is a very ‘red’ state,” Mahmoud said. “So it’s really hard to get other points of view out there and especially for them to win elections. We don’t have a big history of having Democrats as senators in Indiana.”

e political party clubs both think it is essential for young voters to vote. Even if both clubs have members who cannot vote.

“I think it’s important for you to have a voice and if you don’t vote, you don’t feel heard,” Koenig said. “ en, that can translate to how you act in society.”

QR code to rockthevote. com for voting registration.