Many students who traveled on the bus going to polling stations on and around the Syracuse University campus were voting for the first time.

The bus traveling between the Toomey Abbott Towers and Mount Olympus wasn’t heavily populated with students. The majority of the students who got on board were freshmen because the bus picked people up on the Mount at Flint and Day halls as well as near the Brewster/Boland/Brockway Complex, which are all freshman dorms.

Tom, the bus driver who declined to give his last name, said he voted before he started his bus route. He said, “It’s my right to vote. It’s how you get stuff done.”

Some students who got on the bus were very clear about who they were voting for and why they were voting for that candidate.

“I’m voting so (Donald) Trump doesn’t win. It’s to fulfill my civic duty,” said Hanna Frank, a freshman finance and Spanish double major.

Anissa Vasquez, a sophomore geography major, said she was voting for Hillary Clinton, who she believes will work to prevent more damage from climate change. She said she feels strongly on environmental issues and wouldn’t want to deal with the ramifications of climate change without knowing that she did what she could to fix or stop it.

“I feel like this election is the case of two extremes. There’s so many things that have to be avoided that will happen if Trump is elected,” said Dylan Roman-Holba, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Brendan Paparella, a freshman in the Bandier Program, said he feels the candidate he voted for is not “best for this job, but is definitely better than the other candidate.”

“This has been the craziest election,” Paparella added.

Other students felt it was their duty to vote. Gabrielle LaMarco, another freshman in the Bandier Program said she voted because it is your duty as a United States citizen to do so.

“Nothing bad can come out of it,” LaMarco said. “It only helps out.”

Natalie Torres, a graduate student at SU, said voting is “a good way to get your voice out, especially at an age where everybody has something to say.” She added that she felt this generation shouldn’t be silenced.

Apart from Tom, the bus driver, everybody on the bus was voting in their first election.

Sabrina Maggiore, a freshman broadcast and digital journalism and political science double major, said this is the first election she is eligible to vote in. She added that she thinks it is too important not to vote in an election like this one.

It was also Leanne Paddock’s first time voting in an election. The freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management said voting is something she has been looking forward to.

“My mom always took me voting with her, and it was always something I thought ‘This is what grown-ups do,’” Paddock said.

Published on November 8, 2016 at 5:29 pm

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