Not voting was the only choice for some Ohio State students

President Barack Obama’s re-election was for many college students, a part of history they could be involved in and their first chance to vote for president. But some OSU students still chose not to cast their ballots.

“Honestly, I couldn’t justify voting for either of them,” said Lauren Granchie, a third-year in forestry, fisheries and wildlife. “I didn’t feel strongly enough about either candidate to feel comfortable voting for them.

“If one of them would have won and it was the one that I voted for and things went downhill, I’d feel like I contributed to it,” she said. “I didn’t feel either of them would do the best job running our country.”

Li Mei, a fourth-year in logistics management and marketing, is working in a co-op program in New York City. She said that even though she could have voted by absentee ballot, she chose not to request one because she didn’t think either candidate was suitable for office.  
“To be honest, I’m not that educated in either of their policies and what they believe in enough,” Mei said. “I just feel like we are picking the lesser of two evils because as someone who is about to get a job under (the Affordable Care Act), it’s not fair because all of our hard-earned money is going to people who need it, which is great, but at the same time I don’t want my hard-earned money going away,” she said.

Along with candidate indecision and problems with location, some students just didn’t register on time.

“I didn’t realize I wasn’t registered to vote until it was too late,” said Dave Grudzinski, a fourth-year in psychology. “But I wasn’t really a fan of either candidate. If I had to pick, I guess I would have given Obama my vote.”

Some students said they believe voters aren’t taking the necessary actions to educate themselves in their political decisions.

“People are not informed, they are just making these decisions based on what other people say just based on the fact that they are not educated at all,” Mei said. “I know for a fact that unless you are a poli-sci (political science) major, no one keeps in tune with everything that goes on with the government.”

Granchie added that the problem with general voters is where they get their information.

“I definitely don’t think that most voters are informed,” Granchie said. “I think they get a lot of their information from very biased sources, so they are making their decisions based upon that, but they are not really making well-informed decisions, they are just forming their own opinions based on what they hear from the media and other people.”

Other students think that some voters rely too heavily on their personal ideas.

“People tend to vote based on their own beliefs,” said Grudzinski. “I’m not saying everyone does, but people who strongly support one candidate or the other don’t listen to what the other person has to say.”

Mei said that if citizens were really passionate about the direction of the country, they would pay attention to politics all year.

“I think people just become political (on Election Day),” Mei said.