Young voters weigh in on Election Day

Kalliann Haas, 19, said she was motivated to vote in the Nov. 6 presidential election for the first time because Republican Mitt Romney was part of her church.

Before casting her vote at Advent United Methodist Church , 3460 N. Rancho Drive, she said she did extensive research to prepare. It paid off , because she said the voting process went smoothly and she felt comfortable. Plus, her mother showed her how to fill out the sample ballot and Haas talked about voting with her friends and family.

Regardless of the winner, she said she was just excited for the aggressive canvassers to stop. She was stopped on the way to work for an education petition on Election Day morning, she said.

Clark County voter registration was higher than recent years at 851,803 people, representing nearly 68 percent of all statewide registrants, according to the Secretary of State's office. In 2008, close to 815,000 people in the county were registered. And the trends carried over to voter turnout, where 80.08 percent of voters participated in the 2008 presidential election, compared with 80.92 percent this year, according to the county.

Kenna Scherado, 24, was one of the lucky ones in the valley -- she said she hardly got any canvassers at her door near the Las Vegas Beltway in the northwest and didn't receive many phone calls leading up to Nov. 6. She, too, said that voting for the first time was easy because she filled out the sample ballot before entering the booth, an option that not all states offer.

"Basically, my dad told me to go vote; otherwise I would be in trouble," she said.

But she said this was the first year she took any interest in it because she didn't want to see President Barack Obama re-elected.

"I don't think he followed through on any of the promises he made," she said.

Even though Sharo Taqueban, 29, was interested in voting in 2008, she said she didn't register on time so she made sure it happened this year when she visited the Department of Motor Vehicles. She said she knew who she would vote for without doing any research because she had watched the debates and believed President Obama deserved a second chance, placing most of the blame on Congress.

As soon as she voted, she stood in the parking lot of the church and took a photo of her "I voted" sticker with her iPhone to post on Facebook. She said she expected that about 50 percent of her friends and family voted, based on talking with them and perusing social media site status updates.

Youth voting is important because voting is habit-forming, meaning if someone votes when they're young they're more likely to do so in future elections, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

Plus, young people who are registered to vote typically turn out. The center's research showed that in 2008, 84 percent of voters 18 to 29 years old who were registered cast their ballot. But registration is lower among young people. In 2008, 77 percent of that population was registered to vote, compared with 85 percent of those older than 30.

Brian Henry, 18, who was homeschooled, didn't want to take any chances with long lines so he voted early in his first time to the polls. He was a strong Ron Paul supporter in the primary, even serving as a state delegate, but got behind Gary Johnson, hoping to get the Libertarian to 5 percent of the vote.

Henry's parents exposed him to politics early on by fighting for education issues at the state level.

"We talk about politics," he said about his mother. "We don't always agree about them."

But he said he had to do a lot of research on down-ticket candidates before making a decision, a process that took him an hour and a half, he said.

He said he'll continue to be active in politics but doesn't think he'd ever run for office . He went door-to-door on issues with his mother before, he said, and hated it.

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Laura Phelps at lphelps@viewnews.com or 702-477-3839.