“It feels empowering.”
That’s how Penn Manor senior Mark Longenecker said he felt after voting in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Primary election.
But not everyone who is eighteen and attending Penn Manor High School voted.
“First of all, I didn’t register, second, I had no means of transportation and third, I don’t care about local government,” said another 18-year-old senior.
That seemed to be the trend for most of the 18-year old Penn Manor students, they didn’t vote.
While, Joe Sestak took the race over the aging Arlen Specter for the Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat on the Democratic side. Pat Toomey won the Republican nod and will face Sestak in the fall.
The other major race was for gubernatorial candidates. Tom Corbett was the Republican winner and will face Dan Onorato, a Democrat, in the general election.
“I didn’t register or I would have voted,” said senior Matt Glick.
It was difficult to find even one student eligible to vote who actually did.
Although primary elections can have light turnout, the Associated Press estimated less than 40 percent of registered voters turned out on election day.
Yet, many students have strong opinions on government and politics making it curious why more did not take advantage of one of the strongholds of democracy.
“I would say, that the students probably do not know where to go and register,” said assistant principal and history teacher Doug Eby, “the majority would vote if they knew where to go.”
One student, other than Longenecker, was found who did vote, “It was a very serious atmosphere,” said senior Andrew Zell, “I thought it would have been a lot cooler.”
By Zane Sensenig and Paul Slaugh
This is awful, the people who don’t vote are disrespectful to the millions who died for this country.