The Roosevelt Society presented the Undecided Voter Forum at OpenGrounds Tuesday to help undecided voters learn more about different perspectives on central policies in the upcoming election.
Mary Garner McGehee, second-year College student and Roosevelt Society member, said knowing people who were still undecided so close to Election Day on Nov. 8 served as an inspiration for the event.
“[I had] talked to some friends who had expressed how they weren’t quite sure who to vote for yet in the election,” McGehee said.
To help steer the conversation, the event had multiple moderators, most of whom were members of the Roosevelt Society.
The Roosevelt Society is a non-partisan political dialogue society at the University.
“We meet every Wednesday to talk about different political issues in a really casual, exchange-of-ideas kind of way,” McGehee said.
Moderators and attendees both sat in a circle, while representatives of liberal and conservative perspectives on different policies opened up each part of the discussion by explaining their party’s current stance on each topic.
Attendees or other moderators were able to ask any questions they had concerning each topic. While no Libertarian representatives attended the event, the moderators tried to present the Libertarian view as well.
Attendees discussed national security and terrorism, immigration reform, the economy, police brutality, gun reform, social policy and the environment. In trying to inform undecided voters, McGehee said it was important to focus the event around explaining policy and not the candidate’s personality.
“We thought this format would be really beneficial for undecided voters. It’s an opportunity to talk about different policy issues in a way that’s not a debate,” McGehee said.
Second-year Engineering student Carlton Higby said he attended the event to learn more about each candidate.
“We’re down to a week before the election and I have felt pretty uninformed so far because I’ve been focusing on school and not so much the election,” Higby said. “I wanted to come tonight to try and help me learn a little bit more about each of the candidates and fix my undecidedness.”
Although Higby’s vote is currently undecided, he said did not want that to stop him from participating in this election.
“It’s such a historic election that I want to make a vote that I’m comfortable with and feel like is actually going to make a difference,” Higby said.
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