As 2024 Election Day approaches, tensions increase as election deadlines approach, making every vote matter more and more as time goes by.
Due to the profoundly close election, every individual vote holds more weight than previous years. Sierra Vista High School’s Advanced Placement Government and Economy teacher, Jerome Streets, explains the importance of voting, “the people we vote for are responsible for making policies that govern us so if you want the governing to be responsive you have to help govern what we want… We have a very small percentage of people who participate in voting and they get what they want. All the people who don’t vote don’t get what they want and are mad about it.” Many young voters do not understand the importance of voting and consequently skip the voting process entirely. Those who do understand the importance of voting, look closely into the ballots. Streets comments, “every question on the ballot matters, they are all state initiatives but they change all things including our constitutions.”
The 2024 Presidential election, being so close in polls, makes everyone’s votes even more important. The republican candidate, Donald Trump, returns and faces democratic candidate Kamala Harris, current Vice President of the United States, running in place of Joe Biden. Each candidate is currently traveling throughout America stopping in multiple “swing states” holding rallies and publicizing their campaigns as an attempt to gain more votes before voting closes to the public on November fifth.
2024 marks not only the presidential election but elections for multiple other positions as well. The race for Nevada’s Senate faces off Democratic representative, Jackie Rosen, and Republican representative and businessman, Sam Brown.
The election for Nevada’s mayor places Shelley Berkley, former state representative and Democratic candidate against Victoria Seaman, Republican candidate. Each candidate has had previous government experience, Berkley previously had a fourteen year long congressional career whereas Seaman gained experience through her career as a former Republican assemblywoman.
As the election date nears, tensions rise and the number of voters fluctuate. Understanding the importance of voting as well as the vitality of being an informed voter has never mattered more. Final deadlines for voting occur in person for early voting on November first. In person at a voting location and online voting will close on November fifth.
