Voters flooded the Health and Humans Sciences building to cast their ballot for the midterm election. Polls opened at 6:30 a.m. and as of 1 p.m. 270 voters already passed through with issues like affordability, Helene recovery efforts and a yearning for change on the forefront of their minds.
“I’m looking for a better way forward,” said voter Beth Haynes Reynold.
Many voters brought up frustrations with the price of living and are looking to make a change. “The biggest thing that I’m looking for is people that have common sense, that have good policies and that can lower the prices of everything,” said Brandon Tig.
Western Carolina University students echo the pressure of rising prices.
“I just want everything to be a little bit more affordable,” voter Thomas Pumalpa said.
Along with affordability, many voters are concerned with how funds will be handled in the future, especially in regards to Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
Elijah Mason, an emergency disaster management major at WCU said, “The amount of red tape and roadblocks that this area has had, Asheville’s had, and things like that, have been insane… So that mixed with just more affordability in the future. It’s getting rough out here.”
Brian Mullen ties the need for Hurricane Helene relief with his support of senate candidate Roy Cooper.
“Just look at the funding that we’ve received so far after Hurricane Helene that happened here. That’s a critical component of where our governor and where we can flip our seats… how we can get better funding back to where it belongs instead of just having 18% of what we were promised,” Mullen said.
Hear what voters we talked with said.
More voters shared their support for senate candidate Roy Cooper. “He expanded Medicaid in the state with the Republican General Assembly. He passed a raise in teachers’ pay about 8% in every state budget, sending him to Washington is a great idea for the common North Carolinian but also for the common citizens of America,” said Tig.
“I like Roy Cooper as a governor, so I was really happy that he was wanting to go to the Senate,” said La’nya Bradley. Bradley emphasized how the proposed constitutional changes on the ballot would impact future disaster relief. “I want to be able to (have it) where there’ll be money for natural disasters like this without having to take it away from other places that definitely need it as well,” added Bradley.
David Rogers, current candidate for the Jackson County Commissioners Chair, was present and shared some of his fears for this election cycle.
“When it’s not a cycle of the president running, you run into voters not getting out in support of the local candidates, so I am a little worried about that but, we’ve had a good outcome so far,” Rogers said.
Rogers isn’t alone in hoping more people get involved with voting. Student Charles Keenan hopes this election cycle will show more people taking initiative.
“Honestly, I was pushing it off quite a bit… Everybody thinks that their vote doesn’t matter or, they think it does matter but somebody else is gonna count out their vote or something,” Keenan said. “I figured if I do it, and I get more people to it, and I tell everybody ‘Hey, I did it’, if they see this thing, they’ll go out and do it.”
Rogers’ message to the voters is very similar to Keenan.
“Vote your heart, vote your values, and let the best man win,” said Rogers.
Polls close at 7:30 p.m. Absentee ballots must be turned into the Board of Elections office by 7:30 p.m.
