Athens, WV (WOAY) Midterms are right around the corner, and in the November 3rd general election, voters across the nation will decide the outcomes of many important political races.
“We call them midterm elections because there’s not a president on the ballot, and we think of presidential elections as the kind of the ‘real’ elections. And then midterm elections happen in the middle of a president’s term. But there are races in virtually every office besides the presidency; all of the House of Representatives is up for election, and a third of the Senate. And then at the state level, for most states, all of their House of Representatives or House of Delegates is going to be up for election, and some portion of their Senate, and then a number of governors’ races and a variety of state and local offices.”
Midterm elections often have a lower voter turnout. According to Distinguished Professor of Political Science Sally Howard at Concord University, that’s because midterms tend to be less exciting and less publicized.
“[Turnout is] significantly lower. It’s often about half what it is in presidential elections. And it’s lower because the presidential race is what is exciting to a lot of people. And it’s the one that you really can’t not know that it’s going on, right? You can’t miss the billboards and the TV ads and the discussion online and all of those things. It’s easier to kind of be informed and be involved in an election like that. And the midterm elections require a little bit more effort. And they are not quite as exciting because, for a lot of people, it’s names we’re not that familiar with.”
All 435 districts in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 33 seats in the Senate are up for grabs. Even without a presidential race on the line, midterms can majorly affect the political landscape for the rest of the president’s term and much longer.
“Midterm races are really, really important. They can determine which party holds Congress, and so they can determine whether the president has a Congress of his party or a Congress that is in opposition to him. And then also at the state level…You can see an entire turnover of party control in state legislatures as well.”
Howard says that voting is always important, not just because the outcomes matter, but because free and fair elections affirm our place in a living democracy.
“It’s the most critical thing that we can do, and it’s something that people will often say they value the most about living in a democratic society. And yet we often don’t exercise that. And so one of the things that I tell my students over and over again is to start that habit young, and keep it throughout your life because it’s one of the most important things available to you.”
Several resources make it easy to stay informed and confidently exercise your right to vote in free and fair elections.
“The local news stations or the local newspapers—the online websites for those—are great places to get information. There’s a website called BallotPedia where you can put in your address, and it will bring up a sample ballot. And that’s really helpful because you will find out every race that’s going to be on your ballot, even the smaller, more local ones; you’ll find out whether or not there are any ballot initiatives where voters are being asked to vote on a particular question and not just on an office holder. And that allows you to really kind of then go and do some research and get prepared so that when you go into the polling place on Election Day, you know exactly what’s going to be in front of you, and you’ve got all your questions answered.”
