This article was edited on Nov. 6, 2024, to clarify that the polls still need to count provisional and uncounted votes and that the count of votes is not official.
On Election Day, Nov. 5, thousands of UC Santa Barbara students on campus and in Isla Vista casted their ballots for what preliminary numbers show is one of the closest elections ever. By the time polls closed at 8 p.m., 1,079 people voted in-person — not counting provisional and uncounted votes — in Isla Vista and on campus, indicating 15.8% less people voted in-person than in 2020 .
Community members dropped off their ballots in front of the SRB Tuesday morning. Bryce Hutchins / Daily Nexus
This voter registration data was collected from counts by Political Data Intelligence for the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District, which includes Isla Vista and UCSB. Not all the votes have been counted at the time of this article, and the official count will be known when the elections office releases an official uncounted vote summary.
The 2024 presidential election between Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is “extremely close” according to CBS News and the most recent polling data. Many student organizations tabled across campus to encourage student voter engagement.
The I.V. field team, a subdivision of the UCSB Campus Democrats, tabled the morning of the election, providing students with voting information including polling, drop box locations and same-day voter registration. The organization registered about 3,000 new voters leading up to the election, according to UCSB Campus Democrats President and third-year political science major Micah Littlepage.
Second-year political science major and I.V. field team intern Grace Hill said that voting is essential for young people. Voters aged 17.5-25 make up 15.42% of total registered voters in Santa Barbara County.
“Well I mean it’s our future. As young people of America, we are voting directly on the people that will make policies for the next few years,” Hill said. “Issues like climate change are obviously going to be affecting us and our kids for the next decades. So it just is so, so crucial to be involved in the voting process.”
UCSB’s California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) chapter also tabled on Election Day, specifically lobbying students to vote “yes” on California Proposition 4, which would issue $10 billion in bonds to water, wildfire prevention and protection of state land.
CALPIRG member and third-year political science and economics double major Jake Twomey believes that voter engagement is crucial, and highlights Prop 4 as being an important issue this election cycle.
“Voter engagement is super important just because I think probably all of us can say that politics doesn’t look the way that we want it to,” Twomey said. “Right now we’re doing a little table just to raise awareness about Prop 4, we’re just making sure that people know about it and know to vote yes on that.”
Ballot drop boxes were placed at various points around the Isla Vista community. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
The closest polling station from campus is at the Isla Vista Community Center. There are several mail-in ballot drop boxes on campus, including one outside of the Student Resource Building (SRB), where third-year aquatic biology major Lucas Greenholz recently cast his vote.
“I got my mail-in ballot, and then I filled it all out, and then I went over to the SRB and I was able to turn it in there. It was all pretty easy,” Greenholz said.
Many UCSB students shared an eagerness to cast their vote to make their voices heard, but their decisions to vote reflect a diverse range of personal beliefs and values. For Greenholz, voting is his civic duty to make sure the candidate that aligns with his values wins the presidency.
“I think it is pretty special that we have the right to participate to some extent in the presidential election. Especially with this one, where there are two diametrically opposed sides and there’s one side that I agree a lot with, and there’s one side that I’m very much opposed to,” Greenholz said. “I think it is important to [vote], even if my vote isn’t gonna make a big change.”
Many students named reproductive rights as being the top issue that influenced their decision to vote, including first-year biology major Rickell Lewis.
“The main reason was for women’s rights, reproductive rights, and I just felt like my voice mattered,” Lewis said. “I mean, we should just have a right to our bodies and what we want to do with them, and that was taken away, and then it’s like our freedom is taken away.”
Students brought up their concerns over reproductive freedoms because of Trump’s pro-life beliefs. In the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization court case, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect the right to abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, bringing legislative power over abortion back to the states.
Some students, like second-year aquatic biology major Quinn Davis, are concerned about the effect of a potential Trump presidency on reproductive freedom, which has motivated her voting decisions.
“It means whether we’re going to actually be able to take control of ourselves and our bodies, and take care of the people in our country or not,” Davis said. “I’m concerned if Trump wins and how that would lay out for our country.”
As students reflect on the election, many express anxiety over the close race because of the potential impact on their future.
“The fact that I am — and my friends around me — are going to sleep every night and we are questioning exactly what the outcome of this is going to be and what our future and the future of those around us is going to be after this election,” Greenholz said. “At this point, I’ve done all I can. And so all I can really hope is that things end up the way they need to.”
A version of this article appeared on p.1 of the Nov. 7, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
