First-time Bruin voters share their hopes and experiences at election night watch party

Beginning early this evening, students gathered at the Pavilion Club in Pauley Pavilion, where they huddled around tables, crouched over laptops, exchanged opinions and watched on big screens as the results of the 2024 elections began rolling in.

The watch party, hosted by BruinsVote and UCLA Campus Life, followed a day of voting for UCLA students, who filled campus vote boxes and joined the lines at De Neve Plaza, Ackerman Union and the Hammer Museum, many of them casting ballots for the very first time.

"Dropping off my ballot was pretty easy," said Luqman Mohammed, a first-year neuroscience major. "It was more difficult figuring out the process and really understanding what to do in terms of the propositions, the senators, the president."

With 10 state-level propositions and host of local measures and races on the ballot, there was much to consider, but foremost on many students' minds was the race for the White House between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I'm very hopeful, a little wary, a little scared, which I feel a lot of people on this campus are feeling," said Maria Mereles, a first-generation neuroscience major and immigrant from Paraguay who said she had gladly voted for Harris.

An aspiring doctor, Mereles said she was concerned about the economy - "people who say Trump's trickle-down economy was good didn't really read up on that" - but was equally worried about the future of reproductive rights in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion. "It's a little scary for the future for a lot of girls."

The same issue motivated her roommate, America Jimenez. "A man shouldn't get to decide what happens to a woman's body," the first-year student said. "Now that it's between Trump and Kamala, it really opened my eyes, and I was, like, 'Oh, I have to vote.'"

First-year environmental science major Gabrielle Chang was hoping for a Harris victory - particularly because of the candidate's stance on climate change and women's rights - but admitted she was "a little frustrated" with the ballot choice. "I wasn't fully satisfied by either of the options for president."

Voting for the first time, Chang said, "I really only thought about the presidential election, but I realize that for California elections - that's where our vote matters even more. I think we have a lot more influence over the California propositions, and it's a misconception to think they aren't as important as the presidential election."

Mohammed agreed.

"I voted more because of the propositions in the local elections, the local issues that I care about. I feel like that has more of an influence on my day-to-day than the presidential election will ever have. I would advise people to be more mindful of the importance of the local issues rather than the big national issues. "

As for president, he said that while he did choose a candidate, primarily based on recent events in the Middle East, he felt the two-party system limited voters' options, and he wasn't convinced much would change whether the winner was Harris or Trump.

"I don't feel as stressed or as scared about it" as others, he said. "I honestly feel like [the candidates] are going to be a lot more similar than people think. The change that will really happen in our country comes from all the small actions that we do."

Mohammed wasn't the only one in his family new to voting - his father, who recently became a U.S. citizen, was also casting his first ballot.

"I just got off the phone with him. It was a really fun experience because he's a different generation than I am, but we're both bonding over the fact that we're engaged in the election process in almost the same way."

For Matthew Wong, voting for the first time "was kind of cool because I didn't know too much about it," but having the opportunity to read up on candidates and propositions helped him better understand how elections work. And while he stressed that it was important for everyone to vote to help determine the nation's future, he said he has shied away from overtly political conversations during the run-up to Election Day.

"I don't really talk a lot about politics, especially in today's climate of partisanship," he said. "I like to make sure everyone's getting along and united and good friends with each other."

Tags: Election 2024 | elections | politics | students | campus events | campus life