My intentions of attending the Rose Cafe this week was to learn more about the upcoming midterm elections and for whom I should cast my vote on Nov. 6th. However, Dr. Altschuler made it very clear that his speech would not fulfill this purpose, and I instead would have to become an informed voter on my own accord. In hindsight, this was good advice – it is best to gather information from a variety of sources and a single person will not provide a wide spectrum of ideas.

However, I did get a better picture of the context of the midterm as a whole. For example, Dr. Altchuler explained how gerrymandering influences district boundaries. He also informed the group on voter statistics and how there are always more Democrat voters than Republicans, but the Republicans always have an advantage because they are located in more rural areas. Finally, and most importantly I believe, Dr. Altchuler explained how young people have the lowest voter turnout of any demographic group. This made me reflect on how I can do my part as a member of this group to influence my peers, both at school and at home to take charge of our future and become contributing members of the country. Therefore, after the cafe, I set out to convince my roommate to apply for an absentee ballot and vote in the midterm. In my spiel, I emphasized that voter turnout is generally so low in midterms that our votes proportionally count for more. She conceded and I am encouraging her to send in the application in the morning.

P.S. A big thank you to Rose House Office for providing stamps for situations like these! It was a great initiative and I hope it encourages our age group to participate.