The upcoming election has been proven to be by far the most controversial in decades. For the main presidential election, both candidates have opposing views, with vastly different proposals. A small amount of the senior class have already turned eighteen and are registered to vote in the upcoming election on Nov 4, 2024. The extensive ballots, intense rhetoric, and lack of prior knowledge can make the experience of voting quite overwhelming. All seniors are required to take a senior government class and have four years of experience in social studies courses in high school. Do these classes alone prepare students to vote early on? Or is outside research necessary to get a true insight into each candidate’s voting process and background? Here is a guide from fellow students and teachers for early voters. Senior Ike Stufft turned eighteen in September and is now registered to vote in the upcoming election. He states, “Having a government class this semester is helpful to vote. We watched both the Vice presidential and the Presidential elections and evaluated them. This helped a ton with having prior knowledge on each candidate.” This shows the curriculum of requiring Government for all seniors is quite helpful for those able to vote. A helpful tip given by Stufft to prevent getting too overwhelmed is, “If you are unsure what the issue is that is being voted on, just simply skip voting a
nd leave the section blank”. Senior Ellie Ballard believes that government should be a required class for Juniors. The class has been quite helpful, but the unit on presidents is not until the second semester, which does not give enough knowledge for registered voters. Her piece of advice is, “: be sure to research on your own time to be fully prepared and educated”. Senior Jack Stine does not have a government class this semester and claims he was very overwhelmed when he first saw a sample ballot. Going into the election without learning anything this year about government with the last unit being back in middle school made it very hard for him to understand the background behind politics. Jack states “be sure to find a reliable source and credible information on both parties to make a knowledge based decision.” Overall, voting can be intimidating and stressful especially for young voters but with prior research and the help of government class it’ll be easier to finalize a decision.