Northeastern students speak about voting for the first time
At Northeastern, scores of first and second year students officially became members of the U.S. electorate during the last several years.
Each election cycle in the United States results in some power changing hands, at times with a new administration taking office, Congress reshuffling or both.
And every year, millions of Americans become eligible to vote for the first time, directly shaping the character of that new government.
At Northeastern University, scores of first and second year students officially became members of the U.S. electorate during the last several years. Some have already weighed in on democracy, such as during the off-year election in 2025 that saw voters choose governors, mayors and state and local lawmakers.
But many are heading into the 2026 midterms never having cast a ballot before — an experience that can stir up a mix of emotions.
Election Day excitement for Dina Zahos, a second-year student and Massachusetts resident, has deep roots. Raised in a family that considers voting a civic duty, Zahos grew up with exposure to the issues animating her community in Middlesex County at the dinner table with family.
Zahos, a political science and international affairs major, said her political impulse was also cultivated during her time at Newton Country Day, an all-girls high school. It was there that she learned about the importance of voting, she said, against the larger backdrop of women’s suffrage at the turn of the 19th century.
“I’ve been really excited to vote,” Zahos said.
First-year student Lily-Victoria Cardot is no stranger to democratic participation. A citizen of France and Canada, she recently voted in a local French election and plans to do the same when the Canadian federal election rolls around in 2029.
A criminal justice and political science student, Cardot takes seriously the responsibility that comes with exercising her electoral power — a privilege that she knows not everyone is afforded. “When the time comes, I will be voting because other people don’t have the right to,” Cardot said.
Cardot is preparing to cast her first ballot in a U.S. election after obtaining her citizenship in 2024, navigating a lengthy Maryland ballot featuring candidates for local and state offices as well as three proposed constitutional amendments. Researching the issues on the ballot in her home state has been “a little overwhelming,” but she knows it comes with the territory.
With three ballot questions touching on issues ranging from public-sector labor agreements to judicial oversight and congressional redistricting, she’s had her work cut out for her.
For some students, the decisions on the ballot are anything but straightforward. Silas Morris, a second-year pharmacology student, is mulling over this cycle’s Massachusetts ballot with mixed feelings.
Not every election presents voters with clear-cut choices, and a flurry of ballot questions — such as the nine in Massachusetts — can leave even politically engaged voters in the lurch.
“It can be intimidating,” Morris said of the process of educating oneself about a given ballot. “I think one of my concerns is not fully understanding the policies before making a decision, and feeling like, did I make the right decision that aligns with my beliefs?”
Sophie Kabeli remembers tagging along with her parents when they voted in prior elections, proudly wearing the “I voted” sticker as an emblem of what she herself is gearing up to do this week.
A second-year student from Plattsburgh, New York, Kabeli is studying public relations with a minor in marketing. She registered to vote this past summer.
“I enjoyed researching the candidates because it was really interesting to see who I would support based on my own personal beliefs and morals,” Kabeli said. “I saw that there were things I liked about one candidate that I didn’t like about another. That led me to vote for the person I would rather see in a leadership position.”
Kabeli found the state’s fusion voting system confusing. In New York, state election law allows candidates to receive nominations from more than one political party, with votes cast for them under each party line combined in the final tally.
“But I did ask questions and got all of that cleared up, so I have a little bit better understanding now,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020 — a year of global disruption and domestic political upheaval — was a pivotal time for Gen Z, said eighteen-year-old Ganesh Batchu. The computer science major said it was when his political awakening began.
“I think COVID definitely changed my perspective personally, and it did with my friends as well,” he said.
Batchu’s political development was also shaped by his family and peers. His parents encouraged political engagement, even as he developed views of his own. He eventually became a board member of his high school’s Young Democrats chapter.
He said he feels a sense of urgency this year, and is voting by mail in his home state of Virginia.
“I feel like it’s very important to have a say in our country at this moment,” Batchu said.
Tanner Stening is an assistant news editor at Northeastern Global News. Email him at t.stening@northeastern.edu. Follow him on X/Twitter @tstening90.