Eryn Brennan
In Motion Staff Writer
On March 15, people all across the state will be deciding which of the Democratic and Republican candidates will take Florida’s delegates to their respective national conventions. Understanding Florida’s role in the primary process is important to understanding why students should be excited about voting in the upcoming election.
On why young people should want to vote, Volusia County’s Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall says “If your right were taken away from you, you would really want to vote. We just assume we will always have this right to vote, and you can’t assume anything.”
Lisa Lewis, who’s in charge of voter education for Volusia County’s Student Outreach advises students to “study your candidates. Study the ones that think like you do, that may vote the way you would vote if you were in office or if you had the opportunity. That’s what we like to tell people to do: study.”
In other words, the right to vote hasn’t always been a right for everyone, and the fact that it is now should encourage people to learn about and vote for the candidate that they believe in.
For the 2016 election, a Democratic candidate will need 2,383 out of 4,763 delegates to win the nomination. Out of those 2,383 delegates, 246 belong to Florida. The number of delegates each Democratic candidate gets is proportional to the number of votes they get. On the Republican side, the nominee must have 1,237 out of 2,472 delegates, 99 of which are Florida delegates, and the winner of the primary will get all 99 delegates. That’s a substantial amount of delegates that belong to Florida, which means that Florida can be very influential in the primary process.
It’s no secret that the race to the White House has always been a contentious one, especially in the general election. But this year’s primary is shaping up to be one of the most interesting and hard-fought races in recent history on both sides of the aisle. Even within their own parties, candidates have conflicting ideas and styles that could potentially change the direction of the country, so Democrats and Republicans voting in the primary will not only be deciding which way they think the country should go, but the direction of their party as well.
According to McFall, Florida is “pretty accurate” when it comes to picking the eventual nominee. Florida has voted for the candidate who became their party’s nominee in every recent Presidential Election with the exception of the 2008 Democratic Primary, when Hillary Clinton beat future nominee, President Barack Obama.
When it comes to the actual act of voting, Lewis reminds students of “the importance of registering and keeping your registration updated,” and that there are “different ways of voting, whether it be absentee voting, early voting, or on Election Day.”
No matter how students do it, Lewis says “It’s their voice that can be heard by voting.”