By: Emma Pickett
MTN Reporter
During this election cycle, Middle Tennessee State University worked hard to spark political engagement throughout the students and to encourage early voting.
Throughout Constitution Week, which is from Sept. 17 through Sept. 23, Middle Tennessee State University's campus had numerous signs and Consititution readings to encourage students and faculty to remember the Consititution and its importance. Former Vice President Mike Pence was a a guest speaker at the "Defining Democracy" event held at the Tucker Theater on Sept. 17. During this event, Pence first introduced how significant the Constitution is to our country, then spoke about how to defend our democracy. Pence spoke about how we can preserve our democracy,
"And for me, the way we preserve American democracy is we presever the republic thatwe preserve the principles and the contitution but the requires the people stand by it," Pence said.
After the discussion, the floor was open for any audience memeber to ask a question. This was a great opportunity and was very enagaging for those who attended the event, and sparked more political engagement on campus.
Graph created by MTSU'S journalism professor, Ken Blake, Ph.D., with data from the Rutherford County Election Commission
In Tennessee, you can cast your ballot 20 days before the set election day. MTSU Professor, Dr. Ken Blake taught an election analytics course this semester where he and his students have been charting early voting numbers and recording data from the Rutherford County Election Commission. Over 120,000 people voted early in Rutherford County, that is roughly 52% of all county voters who are registered for the Nov. 5 election. During the 14 days that early voting day was open, the highest turnout day was Oct. 16, with 10,701 people casting their ballots. The lowest early voting data was Oct. 19, with only 5,309 people casting their votes. On the last day of early voting, which was Oct. 31, only 9,523 people in Rutherford County voted early, with many of these voters were first-time voters.
A first-time voter, Kamryn Galland, expressed how she felt voting for the first time and how she felt about voting early.
"I am a first-timevoter, and I have classes on election dya, so it was much easier for me to come and early vote today," Galand said.
Early voting is used for many reasons like: convenience, data for politicians and people who already know who they are going to vote for. In Rutherford County, Dr. Blake's class saw that over 52% of all registered in Rutherford County chose to vote early.
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