Midterm elections are coming up in states across the country. Voters will be electing new senators, governors and representatives.
Experts are predicting race outcomes in certain states, but in swing states like Ohio and Florida the races are too close to predict. Both of these states will elect representatives, governors and one senator.
In Congress there are 470 seats available, 435 from the House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats. Thirty six states will be electing new governors.
With so many items to vote on students may find it hard to educate themselves on all issues. One of these students is sophomore photography and humanities major Ashlyn Lightfoot.
“I don’t really know anything about voting issues on local or federal levels,” Lightfoot said. “A lot of times I don’t feel like I have made myself well informed enough to know how to vote on state things.”
Lightfoot is registered to vote in the state of Florida and is not alone in not feeling educated.
Senior English major Brianna Tuscani feels similar to Lightfoot.
“I do not plan on voting because I have not been as educated as I should be on candidates and questions,” Tuscani said.
Tuscani is registered to vote in Rhode Island.
Despite feeling unprepared to make an educated decision, students do think that it is important to vote.
“I think voting is an incredible, important right,” Tuscani said. “It is a right that my immigrant grandparents worked hard to earn, that women before me have fought for; it is a right granted to me by generations of minority’s voices speaking up so that I might have one.”
In Tennessee, voters will choose a new governor as Republican Bill Haslam has reached his term limit. Republican senator Bob Corker is not running again after being in office since 2007, so Tennesseans will be electing a new senator as well.