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U-Talk: Do you think it is important to vote? Why or why not?

By Staff | Jun 27, 2022

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

Connor Smith

“I think that, on a local level, votes can be very effective for change especially when such a small percentage of people in the area vote for local elections. I’m a little more skeptical when it comes to more national issues. I’ve seen studies that conclude that public opinion has very little to do with what bills actually get passed in Congress. On a more a local level, and luckily that’s the level that affects us more, I would say yeah — voting is especially important in order to help the local government run and in order to get our voices out there.” — Connor Smith, Provo

“Yes, because I think it has an impact. Even if it’s not a competitive race, candidates look at whatever percentage they win by. So it’s a good way to get feedback on policy in ways a poll wouldn’t be able to accomplish. You can see this happen at the federal, but it’s a lot clearer at the local level.” — Andrew Garrett, Provo

“I vote every single chance I get, wherever I live, because voting is important. If you want to complain about something you have to be able to vote to complain about it. But for me? I don’t necessarily vote for our higher up sovereign servants. I go directly for the judges section in our voting system. And I generally vote no, no, no on all judges. But there are a few judges that are out there. I think the general public needs to realize that we need the powers-that-be to see the forest for the trees.” — Tyler Rowley, Provo

“I work in politics and I think voting is really important. Especially in municipal elections it’s very important. You very often hear people say that their vote doesn’t matter, and on a large scale that’s understandable, but on a local scale a lot of races in Provo or for the state legislature really do come down to really thin margins and that’s important in primaries, it’s important in general elections. And it’s important to a healthy democracy that people, even if they don’t think their vote is going to matter, that they still exercise that right and that they are informed how they vote. It’s important to the health of our government and our nation.” — Ethan Bassett, Provo

“Yes. I think it’s important that we come together as a community when we’re picking our elected officials. I mean, it’s very easy to say that, ‘Someone else will vote. There are so many of us that just one vote doesn’t matter.’ But if enough people collectively think that? That’s a lot of votes wasted. I think it’s very important that whoever is in office represents as much of the community as possible.” — Austin Rejcek, Provo

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

Andrew Garrett

Photos and interviews by Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald.


Have a suggestion for a question you’d like us to ask? Send it to hepstein@standard.net.

Tyler Rowley

Ethan Bassett

Austin Rejcek

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