Jimmy McCormack, 24, a Salem resident who works at a Marblehead yacht club, is voting for the first time this November after struggling to register in 2016.
“No one had ever explained to me how to get registered,” he said. “I thought you just walked into the polling place.”
This year he has successfully registered and he hopes that a better job can be done educating young people on how to register to vote.
“Honestly, I don’t think they do enough to teach this sort of thing in high school,” he said, explaining how, since his family wasn’t particularly political, he was never taught about civics at home.
He’s voting for Joe Biden next week because of his views on social issues and support for minorities’ rights.
“This one comes down less to politics and more to about rights. Black Lives Matter is very important to me. There’s one candidate expressing support for it and one who isn’t.”
An 18-year-old Swampscott resident, who preferred not to be identified, remains undecided going into this November.
“I really haven’t followed anything,” she said. “My family is super not into that stuff so I haven’t grown up in an atmosphere that pays attention.”
She explained that politics was a taboo subject in her household.
“They vote, but they don’t like to talk about it because it’s a touchy subject. They don’t want to persuade my opinion so they keep their opinion to themselves.”
She remains undecided not just on who to vote for, but on whether to vote at all.
“I don’t know if I’m going to vote,” she said. “I don’t know where I would start.”
Amanda Stanton, 18, a Peabody resident and nursing school student at UMass-Lowell, follows politics closely and is excited and confident to be voting for Biden.
She rattled off a list of reasons why she prefers the former Vice President.
“I think he has more of a set plan to deal with the pandemic. He’s paid attention to environmental issues,” she said. “He’s supportive of getting people health care. And he’s in favor of raising taxes on the rich.”
Among the most important factors driving her to the polls is the damage she believes Donald Trump has done to the country in his four years in office.
“This country is the most divided it’s ever been,” she said.
“Trump tells people what they want to hear — I want someone who will address the harsh realities that we have to deal with. We need change.”
Anthony Sawaya, 18, a Revere Trump supporter, is confident of the President’s chances in the election.
“No matter what, Trump’s gonna win,” he said at a pro-police rally in Saugus on Sunday, which he attended with a group of his friends. He mentioned that he was disturbed by the social unrest in the country.
“It’s pathetic,” he said of the counter-protesters at the event rallying for police reform. “They’re separating themselves from everyone else. It’s not constitutional.”
He supported Trump for his economic policy, which he felt had impacted him positively.
“I like what he does for the economy,” he said. “I like that everything is going up. I like the stimulus checks.”
He added that he had received a stimulus check in the April bailout.
Victoria Culwell, an 18-year-old Lynn resident and recent graduate from Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School sees herself as an independent but has no doubts about voting blue this year.
“I have agreements with both sides,” she said. “I definitely agree with the Republicans on smaller government. But there’s no way I could vote Republican this year. When it comes to political things, we can agree to disagree. But when it comes to equality and rights, we can’t.”
She was impressed with Biden’s tenure as Vice President and hoped that voting for him could make the country more like it was during the Barack Obama years. As a young woman, she was also excited that Kamala Harris was on the ticket.
“(Harris’ debate) speech about women’s rights to their bodies and about how men have no right to control them just hit the nail on the head for me,” she said.
Additionally, she was upset by Trump’s slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was personally affected by the virus, which infected both her mother and her sister. Her mother is currently suffering from COVID-19.
“Trump moved way too late on (COVID-19). He should have mandated a lockdown,” she said. “It would have been way different if Biden were president.”
“You can’t have (Trump) in office anymore if you want this world to get better,” she said.
Abby Tobin, a 28-year-old Lynnfield resident who works in fundraising and development for a non-profit, avoided politics growing up.
“I saw what it did to people. I saw that it divided a lot of people.”
In 2016, she felt like she didn’t have enough information to make a decision, so she chose not to vote.
“I just didn’t spend the time. I didn’t make an investment in understanding more,” she said. “I felt like nothing really impacted me so much that it felt like my vote made a difference.”
This year, though, she feels like politics has begun to make an impact on her life, both because of the effect of COVID-19, and because of how divided the nation has become.
“The country just feels very divided right now,” she said. “I really enjoyed the years when people were civil and respectful no matter what side they were on. It’s hard to understand what the right thing to do is. I’m afraid of [the result] of this election either way.”