A return to red for Indiana

Today, President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finally got to sit back as Americans cast their votes. All of the candidate’s hard work has led up to this day. Countless visits to states and the never-ending commercials. All leading up to this, but each state has it’s own perspective on the election.

The state of Indiana, which would give a candidate 11 electoral votes, has commonly been overlooked by presidential candidates. Indiana generally ends up being a Republican state in the presidential race, although the 2008 election put a twist on Indiana history. For the first time in 48 years Indiana, had turned blue (Democratic). Today, Indiana voters still showed up at the polls ready to vote, regardless of the color of Indiana in the past.

“Four years ago we turned blue, so it did count,” said Dr. Sarah Stelzner of Indianapolis. “There is so many different levels of government that were putting our opinions in for during this election. It probably doesn’t count for presidential, but it makes me feel good to put in a little tiny blue in our red state.”

There was great Democratic support at the polls, although it wasn’t enough to change history. Two hours after the pools closed in Indiana, its 11 electoral votes were granted to Governor Romney.

“There are other races beside the presidential race,” said Daniel Kunz. “There’s the Senate, there’s the governor’s, there’s even down to the state and local government. They have a lot of impact of what goes on in our lives.  So I think there are things besides just the presidential race and I think people need to realize that they are also important.”

With a huge turnout at the polls, this implies that the new generation of voters are taking their responsibilities of voting for their country. Various parents educated their children on why it is important to vote and took them to the polls to really show them the voting process.

“I have brought my kids for the 14th straight year,” said Dr. Stelzner. “They’ve got to know that it’s important otherwise they might rather stay home play football or play video games or just not make the effort.  It’s always meaningful to me to see people that have worked all day and they much rather go home and have a quiet evening and they make the effort to go out and stand in line so it’s important.”

—Kid Reporter Grace Ybarra