First Time Voter Rebecca Sparling 1I studied the form in front of me. There was a long line of people waiting to renew their licenses and take driving exams. From my seat at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I could spot some of my classmates from school. Many of them looked like deer caught in headlights as they waited for the examiner to call their names. I had been in their shoes not too long ago, so I sympathized with them. Realizing that I was ignoring my task, I turned my gaze back to the form. It had the words voter registration application printed in bold red letters at the top. 2I had never given the idea of voting much thought. My parents often discussed politics at the dinner table, but I mostly tuned it out. I always figured that I would worry about that sort of stuff when I was older. Immediately after I turned eighteen, my parents encouraged me to register to vote. They said it was especially important because it was a presidential election year. I never realized how little I knew about politics before I started filling out the registration form. The normal information requests were on the form: name, age, and address. My pen stopped when I came to the seventh box, which read “choice of party.” I was even more confused after scanning the list of political parties. While Democrats and Republicans were familiar, I had never heard of a Libertarian. There was also the reform party, the green party, and the constitution party, none of which I had ever heard. After much internal debate, I finally decided to check the box for no party. This meant that I would not be eligible to vote in my state’s primary elections, but I decided I needed more time to investigate these political parties before choosing one for myself. 4When I arrived home, I called my older sister Jasmine. I figured that as a political science major, she was the perfect person to talk to about my situation. Because Jasmine goes to school in another state, she will be voting by absentee ballot in the upcoming primaries. Though a registered Democrat, Jasmine was a fount of political knowledge. She explained that there were even more political parties than the ones listed on the voter registration form. We talked for a long time about party platforms and the candidates vying for their parties’ nominations. While I appreciated the assistance, I hung up the phone and was still undecided about my party. The primary elections came and went, and the parties announced their nominees at their respective conventions. I started watching the political coverage on one of the cable news networks. Every day political analysts scrutinized every tiny move the candidates made: from the foods that they ate to what they wore. After quickly realizing that third party candidates received little airtime on television, I went online to research their credentials. Dozens of Web sites compared each candidate’s stance on foreign diplomacy, domestic spending, and environmental protection. Overwhelmed by all this information, I switched off my computer still undecided about whom I would vote for and what party I would join. 6When autumn rolled around, I was so engrossed in the political process that I volunteered to cover the campaign for our school newspaper. The job allowed me to interview students about their thoughts on the election. I discovered that, like me, many of them were confused about the political process. Most of the students I talked with said they were still undecided about who they would vote for on Election Day. This made me feel a little better about my own indecision. 7By this time, campaign ads saturated television and radio waves. Many of the candidates promised constituents lower taxes and a better quality of life. At this point, it was hard to tell the two major candidates apart. Everything they said sounded similar to me. The school newspaper staff got together to watch the first major debate. As the group talked animatedly about the candidates, I sat quietly and listened. One student disliked the arrogance of one candidate, while another thought that the other candidate needed to better articulate his plans for the economy. As the candidates fielded questions from the moderator, the group argued over each response. Listening to the group’s banter was a great experience that finally helped me realize which issues were important to me. 9On Election Day, I was actually excited to get up early and vote before going to school. I walked into the polling place knowing that no matter who won, I had done my part by being an informed voter.