City of Syracuse

Different Issues Are Driving Voters To The Polls This Year

By Laddie Springer

Video

LADDIE SPRINGER (Reporter): The Sumner Head Start School is usually filled with little ones getting an early education. But on election day, it becomes one of the many polling locations in Central New York. One voter, mike Warrenfeltz, is an air force veteran and German immigrant.

MICHAEL WARRENFELTZ (Air Force Veteran): Now, I’ve been in the country for sixty years came over here I was 9 years old, turned 9 years old like about the week after I got here.

SPRINGER: Aside from getting to know the people I interviewed, I wanted to understand what issues brought them out to vote. I spoke to a number of election workers and the poll site manager and they said this is one of the more quiet polling places in Central New York. The irony came for me when I realized that the voters I spoke to were more than willing to talk about the issues they care about .

WARRENFELTZ: Well it’s a tie for me between inflation, which I guess goes within the economy and uh, crime in the streets.

SPRINGER: Alice Timken, a political science PhD student, spoke about the resignation of Representative Katko as one driving force behind her vote. On the specific issues front, one stood out to her.

ALICE TIMKEN (Poli Sci PhD Student): Yeah, I think that some of the ways that people, uh politicians have landed on abortion particularly has been kind of concerning.

SPRINGER: Timken sees a disturbing trend among the general population and politicians that she thinks needs to change in order to create a better and more inclusive country.

TIMKEN: Because right now people are talking about liberty and freedom in such an exclusive way, it doesn’t make any sense. It feels really contradictory to me.

SPRINGER: In Syracuse, Laddie Springer, Democracy in Action.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (DIA) — Sumner Head Start School and P.E.A.C.E. INC. is usually filled with young kids getting an early education. On election day, it becomes one of the many polling locations in Central New York. Although the polling workers and the site manager described it as a quiet polling place, I still wanted to see which issues were bringing people out to the polls.

Mike Warrenfeltz is an Air Force veteran and an immigrant from Germany. He is almost 70 years old and he just started voting during the 2020 Presidential Election. A couple of issues were most pressing to him.

“Well it’s a tie for me between inflation, which I guess goes within the economy and uh, crime in the streets,” said Warrenfeltz.

Alice Timken, a political science PhD student, spoke about the resignation of Representative Katko as one driving force behind her voting. On the specific issues front, one stands out to her.

“Yeah, I think that some of the ways that people, uh politicians have landed on abortion particularly has been kind of concerning,” said Timken.

Timken said she sees a disturbing trend emerging among the general public and politicians that she said must change in order to create a better and more inclusive country.

“Because right now people are talking about liberty and freedom in such an exclusive way, it doesn’t make any sense,” said Timken. “It feels really contradictory to me”.

Timken is worried about reproductive rights and gay marriage. She said policing both is antithetical to the values of “freedom and liberty” that some politicians and people claim to hold.

 

 

 

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