The 2024 Presidential Election and its results have recently been a hot media topic after Donald Trump won by popular vote. Voting is an important decision that can affect the United States, but do young voters know how to submit their ballots? The fresh 18-year-olds must know how to cast their ballots into important national decisions.
The actual election results, finalized on the night of Nov. 5, 2024, showed Trump winning by 312 electoral votes and 50.1% of the popular votes while Harris lost by 226 and 48.1% of the popular votes.
There are two different ways to submit or turn in a ballot. Voters receive physical copies of ballots that they can mail, which are automatically sent to those registered to vote in each state. Voters may also go to a local ballot drop-off using that same physical copy. The nearest polling location in Long Beach is at California State University of Long Beach (CSULB).
Ashley Lopez, a political correspondent for NPR, states in “Mail voting is still pretty popular,” an article from July of 2023, “The agency found that 31.9% of voters who cast a ballot in 2022 did so by mail. According to the survey, almost half of all voters in 2022 voted in person on Election Day.” Based on each election year, both are equal when it comes to voting by mail or in person.
When asked about the preparation of first-time voters here at Millikan, Ms. Boyd, the Government and Economics teacher for COMPASS seniors says, “Here at Millikan, the History Department does a good job preparing first-time voters to cast their votes. In the Fall, on the National Voter Registration Day, the Registrar’s Office gives a presentation to our classes about when elections are being held and the registration process.”
Mari Lu, a senior in COMPASS, says that although she intends to vote, she does not know how to vote. “A lot of kids did dual enrollment like me, so they don’t have a government class.” She goes on to say that most of her information on how to vote came from social media.
On Nov. 6, 2024, Harris announced her defeat by giving a speech to her Instagram followers, stating her loss but reassuring them that this was not why she gave up.
In the same post Harris states, “Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”
It is vital that young and first-time voters are prepared and well-informed about the voting process and about what resources are available for them.
For more information about how to vote in California, click here.
