Word on the Street: How community members feel about this year's primaries

March 5 is primary election day for federal, state and county races in North Carolina. The Daily Tar Heel's Sarah Clements asked Chapel Hill voters about what races are important to them and if they feel represented by candidates. 

Christine Blink

“I early voted. It was really awful. I feel very conflicted about all of the candidates — not so much the local candidates, I feel pretty good about some of the local candidates. But the presidential election feels pretty messed up right now.” 

Kisha Young 

“For me, it doesn’t even matter who's president. It always ends up being the same stuff. Nothing really changed, there's no changes. That's why I was like, if I did vote, it’d be somebody random.” 

Katie Murray

“I think the ones involving the courts and the school boards were particularly important to me. Those are just two parts of our government that I have a pretty strong tie to and I’m really concerned about what an unbalanced court would do in our state.”

“I think the primaries are important because it gives people a voice beyond just two options. It lets you pick who you actually want representing you, which is a pillar of our democracy.”

Janessa Jackson 

“I think mostly, there's a large disconnect between my generation and the generation of candidates running. And then also like, my race and stuff like that, and also a large part of gender.” 

Rhea Poqala 

“A lot of people – not just young people, but people in general – ignore elections outside of like your presidential and your congressional elections, but primaries determine who's on the ballot, and even for, you know, certain, like ballots that don't have as much competition, it's still important to you know, go and show your support for the candidates, whichever one you believe should be on the ballot coming in November.” 

Nathan Feldman 

“I would say that some candidates are a better fit for me than other candidates. And I would say that I don't entirely agree with some candidates. And I think that's great. You know, I think that there's not, in any election, there's not going to be someone who exactly matches to what you want. And I'm voting for the candidates that I believe are going to uphold the values that I also have.”

“I'd say the number one thing you can do when it comes to voting is get informed. If you don't, if you're not informed, you're not going to have enough knowledge to cast a vote because casting a random vote is basically the same thing as not voting at all.” 

Meghana Yeturi

“I think that especially with college students being the next generation, you know, we’re gonna hopefully live in this world for a long amount of time, I think that we're the ones that should have the most influence for voting.”

Katherine Pollock 

“Personally, as like coming fresh on 18, I haven't voted before so it's not like, fresh on my mind, but I still think that voting is important. I mean, it's one of those opportunities to voice what we think – to kind of have a say in our government and what's going on and the people that are leading us, and people that are making choices about and that are going to affect the way that we live.” 

Zoe Schruckmayr

“I honestly feel a little underprepared. I think I'm going to spend this afternoon reading through the candidates, because I want to do an informed vote which I have not been doing enough reading on yet.” 

“I think schooling is really important to me, especially like who's running for the education commission. that's important to me just for public education, especially in Orange County.”

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