Major elections are coming back around this year– not only for the next president of the United States, but also for positions here in Nixa. Seniors who are registered voters – or soon to be – can start the election process by knowing who is running. The next local electuion will be on April 2. See the Nixa school board candidate forum by clicking here.
As a Christian County Clerk, Eryn Flood has a multitude of responsibilities–elections and voter registration just to name a few. Flood says the registration process is easy.
“The voter registration process is simple,” Flood said. “The voter needs to fill out a voter registration card and then our office enters it into a voter registration system. Voters are assigned to their locations based on their physical address. Our entire county is split into different townships and precincts based on the district lines from different entities.”
Though given the option to vote, millennials and [generation] gen Z have trended where they are less likely to vote.
“I think the biggest reason young people don’t vote is because they don’t realize the impact they have on voting,” American Government teacher Alexander Edwards said. “They aren’t fully informed on the topics and they aren’t fully informed on the issues. I am not going to cast a ballot if I don’t fully understand what I am voting for in the first place. It could also be the levels of political efficacy among the youth. A lot of them hold a belief that their vote doesn’t matter, when in fact it does. It really matters in local elections because the voter turnout is usually pretty low.”
Jarad Giddens, the current mayor of Nixa, said voting in local elections is very important.
“Most young voters think that because they are leaving for college and won’t be in Nixa or maybe even Missouri, that the current people in office won’t be there in the next few years,” Giddens said. “Though that might be true, the decisions made will last years after that person has left office. The decisions I make in 2024, I estimate, will affect Nixa for the next 20 years. I would be more than happy to talk to any voter about issues in our community or candidates in an upcoming election.”
One such decision would be the removal of sales tax on food in the state of Missouri.
“There’s some senate bills that have been pre-filled that would exclude food from sales tax,” Giddens said. “Meaning no sales tax on food. Sounds great, but the city of Nixa operates mostly from sales tax. We don’t have a lot of entertainment or big retail stores. If you take away that revenue from food sales, we would have huge cuts to parks, streets and plans to add more sidewalks would go away. I would pay close attention to what your representatives in Jefferson City and D.C. are doing. If the voter put them in the office, you would hope they would have your best interest in mind.”
Changing the level of political and government knowledge amid the youth of today would not be a simple task.
“It starts with voter education, which Missouri is fairly good at,” Edwards said. “Most of the states require some civics education – Missouri is one of them. Having that education does definitely increase informed voters, but I also think the way we vote could be tweaked. Instead of having voting on a singular, stretching it out to a week or so I think would increase voter participation.”
How to register to vote:
In order to register to vote you must be at least 17 ½ years old, a U.S. citizen and a Missouri resident.
- Go to https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/goVoteMissouri/register
- Complete the proof of residency forms.
- Your voter I.D. card will arrive in the mail in the next two to eight weeks.
- If you lose your voter I.D. card contact your local election authority to request a new card.
