From what I can tell about CNU we’re all pretty politically engaged. I’ve not met someone who doesn’t vote and that’s a really awesome thing! However, I’ve noticed that some people will go and travel to polling places in the area for local elections instead of voting absentee for their home district. Now, considering there’s a whole month and then some ahead of November elections, there’s plenty of time to vote absentee – but by that same token not many understand why they should.
For some, it simply feels right to go to a physical location and cast your ballot. However, some people at CNU also vote strategically, choosing to meaningfully influence the elections here rather than voting in local elections in their home district (which might be much less competitive). It’s this last group that I find distasteful, and by the end of this article I hope it’s understandable why I’d think that.
In Newport News elections, despite there being roughly 200,000 people living here, there’s only around 30,000 votes cast each election from this area – with Presidential elections being an exception. For some local elections, there’s as few as a couple thousand votes that are cast. Now, let’s relate that back to CNU has a student body of about 4,500 students. I’m inclined to believe that every single one of these students vote in every election, and some of them will go on to vote for Newport News elections. That ratio is troubling, because the number who decide to vote ‘locally’ might just decide who wins. I’m from Newport News, so it’s probably not surprising that I believe that locals should be the only ones influencing these local elections with their votes.
It’s not that I don’t think the average CNU student might have an interest in who wins these local elections, but it’s that they don’t have an equal stake in who wins. Depending on what academic year you’re in when you go to vote, you’re looking at Juniors and Seniors who won’t even be here for a whole two years. Even Sophomores and Freshman won’t be around to see all four years of some of these terms. Though you might be living in the area – CNU is an island unto itself and is affected very little by the direction of local government, and it isn’t meant to be represented by the state officials coming out of this area. Newport News tolerates a lot from CNU, it’s only fair that they get to have their elections too.
