Poll shows where students land on upcoming elections
Residents, including students who will be 18 years old by Nov. 6, have the option of voting on Senate and House positions and the local District 86 referendum.
The 2018 midterms are Nov. 6, and students are taking a look at not only the national positions available, but also some of the local issues on the ballot, such as the District 86 referendum.
In a poll of 35 students of all grades, 84.4 percent responded saying they think students should care about politics, with 68.6 percent saying they actually do pay attention.
“I think [paying attention to local elections] is really important because it is our future that is being voted on,” said Charlie Karstrand, junior.
The closest and the most highly anticipated/heated vote for students will be on the $166 million dollar District 86 referendum that will renovate both school campuses if passed, including completely redoing the Central pool and engineering department. Again In the previous poll conducted, 51.4 percent voted yes, 40 percent responded no and the rest were not sure if they would vote in favor of the referendum.
Some of these local/state midterm elections are gathering a large national following, especially the sixth congressional district seat fight between incumbent Peter Roskam and Democratic challenger Sean Casten, in an area that Hillary Clinton won by 6 points in 2016, but has been a held by Republicans since 1973.
According to that previous poll, Roskam holds a lead over Casten with 48.4 percent of respondents saying they will/would vote for him, 25.8 percent choosing Casten, with the rest either saying they didn’t know, or choosing an independent candidate.
Students’ opinion in the state gubernatorial election of incumbent Bruce Rauner (R) and challenger J.B. Pritzker (D) match the sixth congressional district poll results very similarly, with 51.9 percent supporting Rauner and again 33.3 percent saying they would support Pritzker.
The one poll result that does not go along with the others are students’ views of President Donald Trump (R) with 42.9 percent of respondents saying Trump has had a negative impact on their view of Republicans, and 31.4 percent saying he has had a positive impact, and the rest saying he has no effect.
Please visit this link to find information on where to vote and how to do early voting.
