While there were no public watch parties for Cache County Democrats or Republicans on Election Night, a group of USU political science students came together to watch results come in. We talked with a few of those students about an hour after polls closed in Utah.
Duck Thurgood: I'm over here at the USU poli sci watch party and I have here one of the participants.
Joseph: I'm Joseph. I'm not an official club member right now, but this is my first event I've been to.
Alicia: Alicia Archibald. I'm a journalism student and I'm probably gonna minor in poli sci.
Duck Thurgood: So what has the vibe been like today for you and for like this group? Has the feeling been, you know, hopeful being together? Have you been nervous? What's it felt like?
Alicia: It feels very uneasy. I feel like there's just a lot of unknown. I also feel like I am in the minority as far as it comes to my peers. I feel like everyone else here kind of has a different opinion and some different hopes.
Joseph: I feel like every once in a while, I'll see something that just totally shifts my mind. There's still this, like, sort of tug and pull, like nothing is as sort of easily winnable as you might think. It's interesting and it's a nail biter.
Duck Thurgood: You know, obviously this is a group of a lot of young college-age people, and that's a really important but often low-voting group. So what do you think is the importance of young people being involved in politics and voting and elections and all of that?
Alicia: Honestly, it's the most important thing for young people to come out and vote, because we're the ones who are going to inherit the future. People who are on the older side, they don't have as much of a stake in it as we do, and so I really think that we have to be educated and we have to know what our core values are in order to keep our country and to maintain freedom.
Joseph: Obviously we're the ones that this change will affect. I will still be on this planet in hopefully 60 years, you know, like this—a lot of stuff that will personally affect me. Also my career in the long term, earn a living wage, and like, be able to buy a house and raise kids.
Though both students were nervous about how the election would go, Joseph was excited to spend the evening with others as invested in the outcome as he was.
Joseph: There's just something that feels sort of great when you're not just like, looking at your phone alone in your house and you're just doom scrolling. Like, there's a lot more uplifting elements of politics that people don't get unless they're with other people
