With 2014 midterm elections approaching, the growing momentum to vote by sending those ballots has arrived. As reported by the Washington Post on Oct. 20, this is the most expensive midterm to date. Politicians are starting to make their final touches as their campaigns begin to wrap up. Students often have opportunities to be involved in campaigns and can find themselves doing a multitude of tasks.
“In a campaign there are a lot of diverse roles needing to be filled,” Dr. Sarah Vartabedian, Assistant Professor of Communication, said. “Someone helping out can easily find themselves getting people registered to vote, passing out fliers, and managing the media accounts. They are the ones who fill in the holes and gaps to the operation.”
Students can get involved with campaigns by contacting the offices of specific candidates. According to Vartabedian, students start out at the bottom as volunteers and have to follow the hierarchal structure to work up to higher positions.
Although volunteer work, students can find themselves being offered jobs with the experience they gain and the hard work they perform.
“Usually the turnout is low,” Terry Harman, Republican Party of Randall County Chariman , said. “Most young people don’t have the adequate interest level to get involved. The majority of people working on campaigns tend to skew older.”
Many WT students and alumn are involved with campaigns but this age range is rare.
“It is vital young people get involved in elections, their futures and livelihood depends on it,” Harman said.
Pew Research Center published a study on July 24 which confirmed  historically midterm elections generally have lower voter turnouts than presidential elections. In fact, most people who do vote usually do so on the merits of a candidate based on their individual values and policies rather than their party affiliation. This means candidates have strategized how to persuade the growing numbers of independent voters.
“The fact is Gen X  and the millennial  generation are not as interested in politics as they used to be. Therefore they are participating less in the campaigns,” Vartabedian said.