Andrew Crighton
News Editor
The 2016 presidential election is fast approaching, and now the Democratic and Republican nominees have been chosen: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
These two people are divisive candidates that have made the choice of selecting one to vote for difficult for many people, college students included. There is a lot of fair criticism for both candidates coming from their opposition and support alike.
“This presidential election is going to be one that goes down in history as I would say probably, one of the worst,” said student Josh Iervese.
For Ireverse, neither candidate is the right choice. “There are two candidates, neither of which really seems fit to do what this country needs to get us out of the black hole that we’re in.”
He explained that the black hole he mentioned is a sum of financial, economic, industrial and health issues that the country is facing.
For some, like Colbin Hansen the choice is easy though.
Hansen will be voting for Trump, who he feels is more likely to make policy changes that will actually address some of those issues.
“People are so tied up in racial issues and not focused on the situations of the country such as economical, refugees, illegal immigrants, stuff like that,” Hansen said. “Everyone is looking at the wrong picture of it.”
There are some who say they can’t vote for Trump, even though they have previously voted Republican.
Lindsey Beckstead and Luarren Bennett are both registered Republicans who said they will not vote for Trump in this election.
“I probably won’t know who I’m going to vote for until I check the box,” Beckstead said.
One thing that Beckstead said she was relatively certain of, is that she would not be writing in a vote, and that she will probably make a decision between Trump and Clinton.
Bennett echoed a similar sentiment with one key difference; she hasn’t decided who she’s writing in yet.
“At the end of the day you should go with the best possible candidate, even if they won’t win because at the end of the day your conscience is clear,” Bennett said.
For other voters, one of the key factors in choosing which to vote for is qualification for the job.
Ian Campbell said that while he believes Clinton may be a criminal, she has the experience of being U.S. secretary of state and a U.S. senator; while Trump’s career has been almost entirely in business.
All but one student had a shared ideal though: regardless of the choices, you should vote.
While writing in a vote and the possibility of splitting the ticket were of different levels of concern, all interviewed believed that you should.
Iervese said, “Don’t just not vote though, that’s just being childish in a way.”
Bennett argued that it’s not just your right to vote, it’s your civic responsibility.
“I think [not voting is] really dumb, you’re exercising your right to vote; even if it’s two crappy candidates,” Beckstead said.
The only one who said he believed it would be fair to not vote was Cody Milne.
A traditionally more liberal voter, Milne said he wasn’t sure who he was voting for, if at all.
“Yeah, I think [not voting is] fair. They say oh, you’re throwing away the vote but, if you’re given two bad choices then it’s not a bad decision not to vote,” said Milne.
Campbell summed up the common theme amongst interviewees when he said, “the only real terrible decision is to not vote.”
