Shortly after casting her vote in the 2024 presidential election, Megan Thrasher, Auburn University student and restaurant manager, shared her mindset on the voting process.
Thrasher, senior in psychology, said that researching and listening to sources about the presidential candidates really helped her decide who to vote for. She got information about the candidates from both the media and the televised debates before making her decision.
Thrasher believes that the media is “something that’s very important in this day and age to pay attention to,” as well as other sources that broadcast the candidates’ platforms.
“I do feel like the debates definitely did influence me. I watched all of the debates, and I did, like, pay close attention to all the information that was presented there,” Thrasher said.
She sought to get information from a variety of media sources and tried to understand the entirety of the candidates’ campaigns. When she cast her ballot, she chose a presidential candidate who she believed would promote the kind of society she wanted to live in.
“I just feel like the deciding factor for me was what I felt would be best for my outcome and what, like, my future would be better with. So that’s what I was really looking for [in a presidential candidate],” Thrasher said.
Besides choosing which presidential candidate to vote for, Thrasher also had insight on the voting process as a whole in Auburn. She said she waited in line for an hour and a half before getting to go inside her polling location, and she voted around noon.
“When I got here [the line] was wrapped, like, completely around the building. So it’s been a while,” Thrasher said.
Casting her actual ballot, however, was much easier. Thrasher said she really appreciated the user-friendliness Alabama ballots had this year.
“I absolutely love the new [...] digital platform that they’re using now. I felt like that was super easy. And not having to split into A-B-C or like T-Z-B or whatever [...] was much easier and more streamlined, and I liked that,” Thrasher said.
Thrasher is one of many people in Auburn contributing their voices to the 2024 general election. Polls will remain open to voters in the state of Alabama until 7 p.m. local time.
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Sami Grace Donnelly, senior in English literature, began writing for the Plainsman in the fall of 2021. She has served as a columnist, writer abroad, Opinion Editor, managing editor and is now Editor-in-Chief of the Plainsman.
