When senior Parker Moore exited the booth after submitting his votes for the 2025 election, he was met with applause and his first I Voted! sticker.
“I’ve been waiting since 2015, if not my whole life, to be able to vote,” Moore said.
Like many students around the country, Nov. 4 marked Moore’s first election season as a registered voter. Though this year attracted a growing youth turnout of voters aged 18–29, Moore says he felt disappointed after a lot of his friends refused to vote.
“Even if you don’t know what certain things you’re reading and voting for are, that’s where research comes in,” he said. “Even if it doesn’t benefit you, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t vote.”
Moore’s mom, a frequent volunteer at local voting centers like churches or schools, also encourages others to exercise their civic responsibility. During her volunteering shifts, she would take voters’ identification and assist with instructions, making sure to bring a lighthearted tone to the process.
“To me, it was a big impact because she actively helped encourage others to vote,” Moore said. “She would always try to keep up the energy and get people excited because it can be very tedious waiting for people to finish voting.”
Though Moore’s mom assisted him in initial research on the state’s legislature, he felt that his knowledge was insufficient. He plans to do more in-depth research on politicians during future elections, knowing exactly who and what he’ll be voting for.
According to sophomore SPEC representative Aris Hanna, staying educated on amendments and America’s current political environment is essential to voting.
“Everyone should be educated on how they vote to not fall into the trap of echo chambers, especially based on the social media you consume,” said Hanna. “Making sure that you do deliberate research is an important factor in politics because right now there’s a lot of misinformation from both sides.”
SPEC co-president and junior Grace Pan also stresses the importance of voting and research in today’s political climate. Though Houston was a small-scale election, she says the local government directly impacts daily lives.
Voting was especially prevalent out of state this season, with newly-elected governors Mikie Sherrill (New Jersey) and Abigail Spanberger (Virginia), as well as New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, highlighting a historic night for the Democratic Party. Citizens of California also passed the Proposition 50 legislation, an action the Democrats hope will restrain the Trump administration’s power in next year’s midterm elections.
Pan says this pattern of Democratic victories may have stemmed from the longest government shutdown in history, starting on Oct. 1 and ending on Nov. 12.
“People are obviously frustrated with the federal government, which is controlled by Trump, a Republican,” Pan said. “That frustration really affected the election results.”
The beginning of November marked national cuts for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal food stamp initiative that feeds 41.7 million people per month. One in eight Americans lacked food security after the SNAP suspension, with children accounting for almost 40% of that number. With the shutdown, federal employees around the country were furloughed, affecting airport flights, national parks and other government-funded programs.
According to Hanna, the shutdown’s presence may have tied into the main winners of this year’s elections and their unified vision to make their respective cities more affordable.
“Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdani were running heavily on lowering the cost of living,” Hanna said. “There’s a strong correlation between how the government is handling budget cuts and how the Democratic representatives who just won responded.”
Regardless of a state, local or national election, Moore says voting and staying aware about politics is every American’s civic duty.
“There should never be a debate about whether or not to vote,” he said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to make a positive change for the country.”
