The Voting Project: Thursday, Nov. 1

Editor’s Note: The Voting Project is a collection of interviews put together by D.L. Richardson’s JRN251 class. With elections fast approaching, the class went out and asked people two simple questions: who they were voting for and why. The answers may surprise you:

 

Rebecca Primer is a 20-year old student at the Rogue Community College Redwood Campus, with the goal of completing an Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree, as well as enrolling in a medical imaging program.

Rebecca was slightly discouraged about the 2012 presidential debates.

“It’s mostly just two people bickering back and forth,” she said. “I don’t really see what they accomplish when they’re doing that.”

However, she supports President Barack Obama’s policies over the strategies of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Rebecca said she was worried about the idea of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan settling in at the White House, given his stance on women’s rights issues and Planned Parenthood. Ryan’s personal beliefs concerning the time at which life begins and his views on abortion dissuaded her from even considering. Romney as president.

“If Mitt had [chosen] a different running mate, then I might have a more difficult time deciding,” she said.

 

RCC Redwood Campus student and supportive military wife Jessica Strength has been striving to complete her AAOT Degree, with only 17 credits remaining. This election season, she’ll be voting for President Obama.

“His viewpoints are the same as mine,” she said. “His goals are the same as mine.”

Like Obama, Jessica is a major supporter of gay marriage and pro-choice organizations. She is also a fervent supporter of women’s rights and pro-choice.

“I don’t want a politician that doesn’t have a uterus to make decisions for me,” she said.

With a husband who has served twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan, she’s in favor of Obama bringing all of the troops back home.

“I really don’t want to see him go again,” she said. “As long as [the Afghans] are competent [in fighting], I think it is time for our guys to come home.”

 

Eric Siedlecki of both the RCC Redwood and Table Rock campuses is a 21-year-old student working toward a degree in computer science.

While many are contemplating between re-electing President Obama and voting to put Republican presidential candidate Romney in the White House, Eric will be supporting Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

“I side most with Libertarian candidates and politicians because [they support] liberty, not only financially and fiscally for yourself, [ but also?] personal freedoms,” he said, adding that both his parents are also Libertarians.

In Grants Pass the Josephine County Library was shut down in May of 2007 due to budget cuts.

Instead of voting to raise taxes to fund the library, Eric’s mother, Christi Siedlecki, contributed financially to the re-opening of the public library.

“That’s what people should do,” said Eric Siedlecki. “They shouldn’t be forced to pay for the things, they should do it because they care.”

Eric said his vote would go to Gary Johnson not in the hopes that he would be elected, but to increase funding to the Libertarian Party and to “raise awareness” of other options out there.

“Most people think of politics as a left or right decision,” he said. “This is more of in the middle and up.”

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