For second-year Physiology major Christina Belloso, the November election is more than just a vote. 

“I’m thrilled to say that, as a 33 year-old woman, this will be my first time voting,” she said. “I’ve never been involved enough or invested enough to research beyond mass media.”

For Belloso, the election is less about picking a specific candidate and more about getting engaged in the political process for the first time.

“I decided not to vote in the past because of my lack of understanding, UN?willingness to research, and the naïve thought that my vote doesn’t matter,” she said. “But now…I am learning the importance of economy, security, the weight of war, honest women’s rights and the unity we lack in our country.

“I decided to independently look at my wants and needs, values and morals, and decide how to invest my vote wisely,” Belloso said.

She knows that some people are not happy with either candidate. 

 “In this election it seems that we are having to choose between the lesser of two evils, but in the words of George Carlin, ‘maybe it’s not the politicians that suck, it’s the public that sucks’,” Belloso said.. 

“Many of the voters I’ve spoken to are disappointed in the two candidates that are running for presidency,” she said. “Could it be that we, the previous non-voters like myself, helped us get here? I thought it didn’t matter in my twenties.”

Belloso said she recognizes the importance of being an American citizen – and the importance of voting.

When she walks into the voting booth, she plans to “pick a strategy, not a side.”

 “[It is] an opportunity to invest in the longevity of our western rights,” she said. “An opportunity to, for once, investigate the fundamental values that our country was built upon, which no other country has ever come close to.”

Before the conclusion that she was ready to participate in the upcoming November election,  she questioned other people’s role, including herself for more understanding. “