On November 5, 2024 America will be voting to elect its next President of The United States. The 2024 Presidential Election has been one with an unprecedented twist, as the incumbent Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, stepped aside just months before Americans cast their ballots.

This has left Americans with two main choices: Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. Despite recent wall-to-wall media coverage about these two candidates, many teens are not fully aware of the importance of politics and significance in their lives. Upon polling teenagers in FHHS’ library about “what they know” about politics, ultimately the results varied.

FHHS student Linda Vu shares “I know about our two parties are Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. I know they’ve been quite vague in what they say they’re going to do.”

Linda wasn’t the only student that shared this sentiment, as another, Kriti Persaud questioned, “What do the candidates actually stand for? They are giving so many false promises on what they plan to do, and very little about how they’re going to actually implement these policies.”

When a few students are confused on policies, the overall majority seem to just not know very much about the election, period. Student Alyssa Reyes honestly shared “I have no idea how it works.”

Many students find it difficult to educate themselves on the process, as many media sources tend to lean a certain direction. The build-up of the electoral process in America can be drawn out, complicated and hard to follow. Additionally many students find their involvement in the political process unnecessary.

So how does the electoral process work? It’s actually a two-step process.

The first step has little to do with the voters. Once both parties put up their candidates for presidency, the two candidates will campaign on their visions for the country. The Republican party’s policy tends to lean right -which tends to be for lower taxes, less regulation and social conservatism- and the Democratic party’s policy tends to lean left -which tends to be for higher taxes, economic equality and social liberalism-. These two candidates will fight for undecided voters by doing campaign events, rallies, and going on the media to explain their vision.

The second step is voting for president. When voting for a candidate, one is actually voting for a mini-election in their own state in part of a process called the electoral college. The electoral college is a system that gives every state a set amount of  “electoral votes” that a candidate can win if they win the popular vote in a state. There are 538 in total, and a candidate needs 270 to win.

Looking at the image above, New York has 28 electoral votes, one of the biggest prizes for a candidate in the country.

This lack of education on the electoral system is one of the reasons students feel disconnected from our political process, but it isn’t the only reason. Many students truly don’t understand how this election will affect their lives. Policy can be hard to find in an increasingly rhetoric-driven election. 

AP Government teacher Ms. Bacchus gives advice on how she’d help students become involved and educated on the election. “I think it’s important for the youth to go out there, because whether they understand it, or know it, or not, they are setting the tone for the generations to come. A lot of them are disappointed in the legacy of what’s left in terms of environmental policy and foreign policy. It’s not enough to be an armchair activist. It’s a good start, but where you see real change is when you come out and make your voices heard.”

To understand how this election affects this country, it is crucial for people to look further into what the candidates promise to do on issues that citizens care about. When people vote, whether it feels like it’s a pointless vote, whoever runs the country has a massive say on how day-to-day affairs are affected. If one cares about unionization, Joe Biden’s administration largely backed attempts to unionize and hired a very left-leaning person as the chair of the Federal-Trade Commission, Lina Khan.

If one cares about deregulation, the Trump administration cut regulations for many industries.

Or if one cares about climate initiatives, the policy has drastically differed based on the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, ranging from being in and out of the Paris-Accords, to the passing of billions in climate spending.

Voting matters, and being informed matters, even if at the surface it seems like nothing changes, one voice can set the tone for this country’s future.