News

45 Women On Why They Are or Aren't Voting

by Alexandra Finkel

November 4, 2014

The midterm elections get a bad rap. Turnout is notoriously low; only about 55 percent of the voting age population voted in 2012, while only 37 percent voted in the 2010 election. According to The Washington Post, the numbers for millennial involvement in the midterms are even more dismal — only about 25 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 participated in 2010 and the same number is predicted for Tuesday's election. That same Washington Post report also revealed that at least five celebrities who participated in the 2014 Rock the Vote campaign, including Lena Dunham and Darren Criss, didn't vote in the the last midterm election.

But these midterm elections are anything but unimportant.

On Tuesday, voters in Virginia will decide Eric Cantor's replacement while Colorado will vote on Amendment 67, a "personhood initiative" which would define life as starting at conception and essentially outlaw abortion. And in Texas and Wisconsin, it's all about the big names. Famous filibuster Wendy Davis is running for the governorship against state attorney general Greg Abbott, while Wisconsin Incumbent Governor Scott Walker may lose his seat to Mary Burke, the first woman ever nominated by a major party for the position in the state.

Because this Election Day is so important, we sent four of our reporters around the country — Emma Lord, Martha Sorren, Audrey Buono, and Doyin Oyeniyi — to ask women in four key states why they were or were not voting. Here's what they had to say.