APPLETON, Wis. — For months, Eliza Peetz worked to help get Lawrence University students to vote Tuesday.
Overall, she said she's pleased with what she saw from this week’s midterm election.
The Fall River native is not only a student at the college, but also the civics and society program coordinator.
“There was a variety of different ways we were helping students,” Peetz said. “Whether it be teaching them how to register to vote, especially as out-of-state students there are a lot of extra steps they have to follow.”
There were also shuttle busses running between campus and a polling location.
“I think it was around 120 students that we were able to run back and forth to the polls,” she said.
Peetz said goal of her work — and others' — was to get people to vote on issues that impacted them and engage them in the democratic process, on both national and local levels.
There were young faces in lines outside many polling paces Tuesday, including Chris Hansen; he cast his vote at the Grand Chute Town Hall near Appleton, Wis.
“A lot of my peers, and myself, feel like the stakes are really high in these elections and that voting is important,” he said. “But the we also wrestle with the elections are so polarized it’s hard to feel comfortable with one candidate or the other and that’s discouraged me from voting in the past.”
According to Asscoaited Press VoteCast data, about 13% of voters in Tuesday's election were 18 to 29 years old.
Peetz said she is looking ahead at ways she can help get young voters out to Wisconsin’s spring election.
“Young people traditionally just do not go out and vote. It’s definitely important for young people to vote,” she said. “We are the future; we’re going to eventually be in those seats and running for those positions. We’re the youngest people here; we’re going to live the longest. So being able to have our voices heard on what policies are going to be enacted is very crucial.”