March 19 will be the day of checking boxes for Florida’s registered voters in this year’s presidential primary elections. Florida, a closed primary state, requires individuals to register to either the Republican or Democratic party in order to cast their vote.
“I registered as a Republican because I wanted to vote in the primaries, but a lot of candidates have my interest, like Robert F. Kennedy, who is an independent,” first-time voter MAST senior Julian Maza said. While this closed primary system has many supporters, the opposition argues that they are the reason behind the rise of ideologically extreme nominees. Many believe the nominees on the primary presidential ballots this year might be just that.
The Republican Party candidates are Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, with the latest aggregate polls from 538 ABC News showing Trump with an average lead of 70.1% in Florida.
The Democratic candidates are Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, and Marianne Williamson, with Biden in the lead after securing results in the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada presidential primary elections according to USA Today. There is little doubt that Trump and Biden will go head to head in November’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, Floridian students, even here at MAST, are being encouraged to register to a party and vote in this upcoming primary election.
“I think [voting is] the most important in younger generations mostly because…there’s so many of us that we have so much power to influence what we want to see. There’s a lot of young people that think that their vote doesn’t matter, but I think it’s super important especially since most of the people who do vote are older and so, it doesn’t represent what we want,” Maza said. Maza casts his first votes this year and urges his peers to do so as well.
“If you have any questions, go to Mr. Bunch because he has most of the solutions for you. What I would say is get your information from more than one source, so you can make an educated vote especially for your first time. Read and listen,” Maza said.
