The day has finally come — voters are filling local voting centers across the country to cast their last-minute, in-person votes for the 2024 election. The most popular student polling location near campus is the USC Village, with the line extending past the entrance of Trader Joe’s.
“I really wanted to come in person for the experience of voting for the first time,” Haylieh Palma, a junior transfer student studying music industry, said. Palma also waited over an hour to cast her vote.
Palma admitted that everything felt “eerie” when she woke up today, and that the idea of the election hadn’t settled in until today. As Palma describes it, this “high stakes” election has sparked high emotions.
“It took me about an hour to vote,” Hector Medina, a University of California Santa Cruz graduate applying to USC for the Master’s in Computer Science (Artificial Inteligence) program, said.
As the line grew throughout the day, Medina advised voters to block out time to vote in person. Despite the potential two to three hour wait under the hot sun, local residents and students are anxiously filling out pink provincial ballot information and waiting in line to vote.
Residents around Los Angeles are equally as excited to practice democracy and cast their ballots on this election day.
“I have a son who is 19, and this is his first time voting,” said Edith Martinez, director of the Child Care Center for the USC staff. “I said [to him] the other years you can vote by mail…but this time, it’s a big election. You need to see it.”
“I’m definitely a little nervous,” Martinez said. “When commuting through downtown, I saw a lot of stores boarding up their windows. Either way [the election falls] it’s very mixed emotions.”
At the Hoover Recreation Center, graduate student Sydney Grant stood in the short line outside the recreational gymnasium preparing to vote.
“[For me], it’s really the presidential election that really has me coming here,” Grant said.
Parents and their children slowly filled the voting booths at John Mack Elementary School, located west of the USC campus. People from all backgrounds lined up to efficiently cast their ballots with the short lines.
“The old-school process is filling out an actual ballot — I just like the feeling of filling it out, it’s something I’m used to doing,” said Joseph Griffith, a contractor who voted alongside his wife at the elementary school.
For Griffith, this election is more personal, as he was accompanied by his young daughter who witnessed him exercising this right.
“Business is good, but it could be better. We’re voting for our kids’ future and voting for the next generation,” he said.
Martinez also mentioned the importance of involving her children in the voting process. She talked about how she preregistered her 16 year old daughter to vote. “Making those differences and doing it with my children so they can see that your vote does count is very empowering.”
All three locations are open until 8 p.m., so potential voters still have a chance to register and cast their ballots through same-day registration.