{"id":4515,"date":"2016-11-18T09:49:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T14:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=4515"},"modified":"2025-08-23T16:48:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:48:40","slug":"absentee-ballot-gives-long-distance-college-students-the-chance-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2016\/11\/18\/absentee-ballot-gives-long-distance-college-students-the-chance-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Absentee Ballot Gives Long-Distance College Students the Chance to Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ivoted\"<\/a>
\nThe Election has finally come and gone, and for many it has been an interesting time. There has been a record turnout for the polls this year. Over 42 million people voted early this year and many of those early voters did so by absentee ballot.
\n<\/p>\n

An absentee ballot is a ballot that is mailed to you from the place you are registered in the case that you will be absent from the polling place on Election Day. Voters request this kind of ballot for many reasons. Some people vote early or by absentee ballot because they don\u2019t want to feel pressured.<\/p>\n

Katherine Waldron, an upperclassman at UMPI and an absentee ballot voter, thinks that voting is a very important American civil right for people of all ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think it\u2019s important to have voices at all age levels heard, especially our generation, because we\u2019re going to be leading this country in the next few decades,\u201d Waldron said. \u201cAll you have to do is call your town office and then they mail it to you. What I love about this is I can get it done ahead of time and be able to avoid the election crows at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those attending college, the absentee ballot is a great thing because many students live on campus hours away from home with some even living completely across the country. Since Election Day fell on Tuesday, October 8, many students had classes and couldn\u2019t go back home to vote.<\/p>\n

Alyssa Finlay, a freshman at UMPI and an absentee ballot voter as well, said it\u2019s very important for people to vote by any way possible. She lives on campus and is nearly four hours away from home. It\u2019s her first time voting for president.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeciding on who runs the country for the next four, maybe even eight years, is a huge deal,\u201d Finlay said. \u201cThis person is the one who\u2019s going to be making a lot of the decisions that affect our country in a positive or negative way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voting by absentee ballot does have its advantages such as avoiding lines and the pressure of voting at a polling location. For college students that can\u2019t go back to their hometown for Election Day, this option gives them the chance to be heard in American politics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Election has finally come and gone, and for many it has been an interesting time. There has been a record turnout for the polls this year. Over 42 million people voted early this year and many of those early voters did so by absentee ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8933,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions\/8933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}