Students walking through the Rhatigan Student Center on Wednesday had the opportunity to prepare for voting in the upcoming Nov. 4 election – by speaking directly with many of the candidates for City Council and Board of Education positions in Sedgwick County.
The Shockers Vote Campus Coalition, a civic group at WSU that aims to educate students about voting and get them engaged with politics, invited all the candidates in the county to a meet and greet event. Coalition President Amelia Locke said the meet and greet, held for the second year, is intended to make students informed voters.
“We’ve had issues of a lot of our students saying that they don’t know who’s on their ballot, they don’t know who these people are, what they stand for, and it’s hard for them to kind of find those resources to learn more about those candidates,” Locke said. “So we think it’s a really good opportunity for students who are voting in the area to get to learn about those candidates and get to see them face to face. And then we also give them a lot of resources during this event on how to make a good voting plan.”
Candidates for City Council and Board of Education positions in Wichita, Maize and Derby attended. They made their pitches to students and others walking through the first floor of the RSC from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Michael McKay, an aerospace engineering major, said he came to the event to see which of the candidates on his ballot align with his views. McKay also said he was thinking about the districts that he doesn’t live in.
“Not only do I like to bring my concerns to people, but my biggest thing is to go and see what people match up with me. I don’t want, in my eyes, a leader that doesn’t have the same qualities,” McKay said. “But of course, you don’t always think about yourself. So before I came, I talked to like 60 people, and I was like, ‘Hey, what problems do you think (are important)?’”
McKay said he plans to use the information he got from talking with candidates to help him decide how to vote, and what to tell friends and family about their own ballots.
Several of the candidates in attendance said they appreciated the opportunity to meet voters, especially new ones, face to face.
Cameron Smith, a Derby Board of Education candidate, said the event was a way for him to reach students, as well as to learn more about the other candidates himself.
“I’ve been looking for opportunities, you know, to go and reach the greater Wichita (area) and, obviously, public things like this, so I could speak to other candidates, because this is the first event that I’ve seen that has all the candidates in one area,” Smith said.
Smith said his advice to young voters, or anyone who hasn’t been very politically involved before, is “it’s never too early or too late to get involved in politics.”
“It may take a little bit more time for you to understand why candidates are in the race and why they’re motivated to be in the race, and it’s more important to take your time and be informed and to take all the opportunities that you can to learn independently outside of the media sources that are giving you information,” Smith said.
Sedgwick County elections
There are no national or state-wide elections this year, meaning the races represented at the meet and greet will be the only ones voters in Sedgwick County see on their ballots.
Ryan Nuckles runs Shockers Vote’s Deliberate Dialogue programming, which is intended to grow community through facilitated conversations. Nuckles said he thinks people often undervalue these local elections.
“People say, ‘Oh, we have an election every four years.’ It’s not true,” Nuckles said. “We have an election every year. It’s not a midterm or a presidential election so generally, it’s a lot lower turnout. We’re trying to fix that.”
Sedgwick County residents can check their voter registration status and find more information about upcoming elections at sedgwickcounty.org/elections.
Locke said students can get help preparing for the election, or ask questions at Shockers Vote’s general meetings or by contacting them at [email protected].
