Yenny Herrera is a William Paterson 20 year old senior accounting major. She is interested in the future of our nation’s direction,  leadership, and voting advocacy. Yenny is a member of the Greek senate and active sorority participant.

What are your thoughts about being able to vote in the presidential election?

I’m looking forward to voting. This is going to be my first presidential election that I can vote for and I’m really excited because I know that my vote will make a difference and will matter. A lot of people are not interested in voting because they have the idea that it doesn’t matter if their vote is not gonna count or it’s not gonna make much of a difference. I recently saw statistics on social media that actually had facts. Joe Biden won the last presidency against Trump by a very small amount of votes. The candidates need to have a message.

What do you think are the most important issues for you?

Definitely reproductive rights, I believe women specifically should have a choice about what they want to do with their body. Another important big topic to me is the Affordable Care Act health insurance. I believe this is something that we as citizens should look into because it’s something that impacts our lives and health, please! Anything related to international foreign relations I’m not really educated on. I watched a little bit of the presidential debate, so I know the candidates have different views on international affairs and alliances.

What would you like to ask the candidates?

I would like to ask them, how would they benefit low income communities? Currently one candidate is talking about the middle class and the other about helping upper class individuals. I just feel everyone should vote if they are registered to vote! It’s an important topic now if you want to make a difference, especially with everything that’s concerning about the future. I have hope.

Declan Timmons is a William Paterson University 18-year-old freshman music studies major. He very much enjoys WPU’s music performances including the recent jazz show and is particularly excited with the upcoming Wooten Brothers

What are your thoughts and feelings about voting?

I’m glad to finally be able to represent my generation and to just have my voice be heard.

Do you believe it matters who our next President is?

I think that there are a lot of drastic policies from either side that could really affect not only our lives including the big hot topic issues in Israel and in Russia. Here at home what goes on in the economy and the housing crisis.

What would you say if you met the candidates?

I would like to but I haven’t watched much of the debate. I watched a couple of clips, but I would like to hear more about Vice President Harris’s plans for the housing crisis. I know she had a plan where she wanted to grant $25,000 to new homeowners. I want to hear more about that and how she actually intends to do that without just inflating the real estate market. (Any thoughts you want to share about the candidates?). Not particularly. I don’t have a comment on them.

Are there any other comments you want to make about the coming up election?

I think it’s going to be close. I’m interested to see who wins. I don’t know, I think it’s hard to predict this one, there were a lot of elections that were very obvious which side was going to win based on how people in particular states were affiliated. Communities were either Republican or Democrat, pro Trump or anti Trump. If Kamala wins, she’s the first female and the first female person of color to be President. They say it’s a really close race. I think it is definitely going to be one for the history books.

Leslie Ramos is a William Paterson University 21-year-old senior who is majoring in accounting. She is a culturally proud Hispanic-Peruvian and an advocate for women’s success through Sorority participation and Greek Senate membership 

What are your thoughts and feelings about voting?

 I feel like it’s important and I’ve had discussions with family members, it’s important because I’m a minority Hispanic- Peruvian. We live in New Jersey, a blue state. My cousins say they’d like us to vote. Even if we do vote, it’s all about the electoral votes that count. I feel as a member of a minority we even have this privilege and so it’s important to vote because representation matters. I feel especially strong about voting as both a minority and as a woman. 

Do you believe it matters who our next president is?

I just align more with Kamala Harris views, I’ve seen what our last President has done. Economically the country has grown but even then I just stand more Harris because of women’s rights, which are very important to me. Women should be allowed to choose on their own without the government telling them what they are allowed to do. With birth control, it’s just a matter of trying to keep ourselves safe.

Jeremy Tavares is a William Paterson University 18-year-old sophomore  Business major. He is the president of the WPU Student Government. He is particularly concerned with students having access to accurate facts regarding the presidential candidates

What are your thoughts and feelings about being able to vote for the first time in a presidential election?

So, my thoughts and feelings about being able to vote for the first time?, I would say, it’s free. As a child I saw my parents stressing about who to vote for and why, and you never really think about it as a child, but now that I’ve grown up I have the choice on who to vote for. You get to make your own decisions and I would say it’s free. It is okay.

Do you believe it matters who our President is?

I do think it does matter who the president is of course. The two candidates each have their separate values and what they think is important. I think it is important that we choose a President that has good values. I’m not well enough informed about the candidates and know it’s important to have the right information about them when voting at the election. I definitely want to vote, just because I know the importance of it, but I am still in that stage where I have to do more personal research to sort out the real and fake news. Some of the videos about Trump or Karmala are fake, there’s a lot of fake news out there. Seeing what’s actually happening and what’s not is- that’s where I’m at right now. Important issues are taxes and the ability to buy a home, to be able to get a loan. Money made available by the government to lend to you at a low interest. To buy your own home instead of renting, raising a family is part of having the American Dream. Elderly people like my grandma and my parents are affected by inflation. Everything was so much cheaper back then. I feel like now, the new generation is growing up and life has become a lot harder because everything is so much more expensive. And that’s something I value a lot. I would say that’s what I value the most right now just because I want to buy a home and raise a family in a home. Everything is just off the charts.