Election season is in the air. The flags, the political advertisements, the increasing political divide between the people of our country fueled by an increasingly radical party system, all good stuff. For some of you this may even be the first year where you’re participating in an election. For these reasons, we’ve compiled a quick list of important topics for voters, future voters, or maybe if you’re just interested.
Primary topics voters will be interested in:
While people choose to vote for a candidate for any number of reasons, their are a couple of issues that the majority of voters will be interested in. According to a study by pewresearch.org, the primary concern to all voters in the study this election is the economy. Among these concerns are things like consumer goods, lack of jobs, and most pressingly, the housing market. Both candidates for the race have laid out their viewpoints on these issues and how they plan to deal with them.
Kamala Harris
Elected District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003, followed by Attorney General in 2010, and re-elected in 2014, Kamala Harris was chosen as Joseph Biden’s Vice Presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential election. After Biden dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Election, Harris is running for president as the Democratic candidate with Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, as her Vice Presidential candidate.
When it comes to the economy, Harris claims she will “build an Opportunity Economy.” On her website, Kamala explains that an “Opportunity Economy,” is an economy where everyone has a chance to succeed and compete. To help achieve this goal, Harris has said she will build three million more rental units and homes to combat the housing crisis. She has also claimed she would expand the startup expense tax deduction for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 to support small businesses. Harris has said she wants to expand the Affordable Care Act by negotiating for it to cover more prescription drugs and creating further caps on different prescription drugs. Finally Harris wants to create both cleaner and cheaper energy for American households.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump is one of the few former Presidents to not have been elected to public office before becoming President. Trump won the 2016 election with Michael Pence, and was a runner up for the 2020 election. In the economic section of his website, Trump mentions creating the 2017 TCJA (Tax Cuts and Job Acts), which aimed to be an overall tax cut for the working class.
Additionally, Trump’s plan to fight inflation includes lifting regulations on Oil and Natural Gas producers, “rein in wasteful federal spending,” cut costly regulations, reduce immigration, and restore peace through strength. Elaborating on the last two, Trump and the Republican party mention reducing immigration as one of their top priorities and say that a mass deportation will benefit Americans by cutting the cost of housing, education, and healthcare. It has been shown that war and international conflict can cause price rises (the conflict in Ukraine where bread prices rose in the initial months by 18% is a good example). Trump has repeatedly advocated for a stronger military to help the U.S. solve these conflicts, and hopes that reducing them will cause a decrease in inflation for all Americans. In contention to the last point in the Harris section, Trump has said he also aims to promote more U.S. energy but believes fossils fuels are still the way to go over other sources like solar energy.
Issues Important to Voters
Abortion and gun rights continue to be a topic that is important to voters.
When it comes to abortion Trump has mentioned repeatedly how he was the one to, “kill Roe v. Wade,” (NBC NEWS) and he’s not exactly wrong when he says this. The groundbreaking piece of legislation was not under Trump’s jurisdiction to overturn, but 3 justices Trump had appointed during his term as president were part of the 5-4 vote that gave the decision to the states. In months leading up to the election Trump noted during his presidential debate with Harris, “I’m not in favor of [an] abortion ban. But it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states.” Harris has said she believes in women’s rights to abortion, and has repeatedly denounced Trump for what she calls his “anti-abortion policies.”
Secondly it’s important to note both candidates policy on gun rights. Trump has said he will defend peoples’ right to bear arms given by the second amendment, and additionally has attacked Harris in regards to a potential gun ban, “she wants to confiscate your guns” (Debate). Harris, who owns a gun, has said before she won’t support a gun ban but has taken a strong stance on attempting to reduce gun violence even saying, “I’m in favor of assault weapons bans, universal background checks [and] red flag laws. And these are just common sense.”
Current rankings
Polls can show how voters are currently thinking, even before the elections. For the state of Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state in presidential elections, Trump is up 50%, compared to Harris’s 48%, according to projects.fivethirtyeight.com. Even with this, it could still go either way since there’s still two weeks left before the election and standard error when gathering statistics like these.
For the state of Georgia, another pivotal swing state in this election, Trump is up 48% compared to Harris’s 47%, according to the same website.
Polls from the New York Times were also extremely very similarly close, but found Harris to be leading in the polls. They found 49% in favor of Harris and 47% in favor of Trump.
For both of these swing states, it still could go either way, and both candidates are within 2% of each other. It is important to remember that polls aren’t always 100% accurate.
Past voting in the area
BASH is located in Berks county. In the 2020 election, between Trump and Biden, 45.20% of votes were for Joe Biden while 53.39% were for Donald Trump. Montgomery county, where many of BASH’s students and staff live, had a pretty even split between candidates. For the 2020 presidential election, 50.01% of the votes were for Biden while 48.84% of the votes were for Trump.
This shows an even split in people’s opinions, which goes with Pennsylvania being a swing state.
Students who are voting
Correspondents for the BASH Cub conducted a survey, asking the BASH students who are eligible to vote, if they plan to. Out of all the students surveyed, every student eligible said they plan to vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Furthermore, all eligible students said they planned to vote in person, instead of voting via a mail-in ballot. One of the students, who asked to remain anonymous, said that “it’s important to make sure my interests are heard by politicians.” Two more students cited illegal immigration to be specific issues for why they were voting.
Hannah Paul, a senior here at BASH, has voted via mail in ballot. She believes everyone who’s eligible should vote, saying, “I absolutely believe that everyone should vote, your voice is your power to make the country your [own].”
Hannah registered to vote online. A few days after that her ballot was mailed to her. She said, “I highly recommend getting your ballot mailed, it was so convenient and I got to take my time researching each position and candidate!” After this she mailed it off, and a few days later she got confirmation it was received.
