COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — First-time voters and Pottawattamie County neighbors got a chance to vote on the Iowa Western Community College campus Tuesday. School officials hope it encourages students to participate in civic life.
- "This gives them the opportunity to voice what they want to see in the future because this is going to affect them as much as it's going to affect anybody else," Kinney said.
- Members of women's soccer team said coaches carved out time for them to go and vote.
- Students said that they get news from social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram, but several said they watch television news and one student said he reads the newspaper.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It used to be that we all consumed basically the same news from a few different sources, but now news sources are more plentiful than ever.
I'm Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel at Iowa Western Community College.
I'm talking with first-time voters about what's driving them to the polls and how they learn about important issues.
President Dan Kinney outside Riever Arena: "Are you looking for the voting…"
A continuous flow of students, staff and neighbors cast absentee ballots at Iowa Western's satellite voting location Tuesday. Most students were excited to vote for the first time.
Brian: "It was our first time voting, so it was a good experience."
Alex: "Not that scary actually, I thought it was going to be way longer than expected."
It's what Iowa Western President Dan Kinney was hoping for.
"This gives them the opportunity to voice what they want to see in the future because this is going to affect them as much as it's going to affect anybody else," Kinney said.
Students told me they get their information from traditional and non-traditional outlets.
Jackson: "I was on lunch and I honestly received a Snapchat from Team Snapchat that said 'Hey early voting today, check where.'”
Brian: "Personally just from like normal cable."
Katherine: "We use TikTok probably a lot and on TikTok there's like verified news sources, so you know you're getting like reliable news."
But Alex says he watches broadcast TV and reads the local paper: "I kind of avoid social media because there might be a little bit of hatred going on there."
And the number of local elections was a surprise for some of the first-time voters.
Katherine: "There were just so many names and people in different, like, little areas that I just like, never heard of before."
Ryan: "The presidential election is mainly the main focus that everyone's been talking about."
Most voters told me they found it a lot more convenient to vote in-person absentee rather than wait until election day and have to stand in those lines.
