First time voters: Best friends vote together

Yaire Barboza (left) and Amanda Kanaly (right)

Cal Poly Humboldt students Amanda Kanaly and Yaire Barboza are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time. Filling out their mail in ballots, the two best friends with slightly different political views felt that it was extremely necessary to vote this year.

“It’s so important to vote because that’s the one biggest power you have as someone living as a citizen in this country, biggest power you have to really influence, not only your life but the life of your loved ones,” Kanaly said.

Kanaly is registered as an independent voter and most aligns with the green party but ultimately voted for the democratic candidate. Kamala Harris is offering to expand reproductive rights and DEI initiatives which Kanaly agrees with, but on the flipside, the candidate’s stance on Gaza and Israel does not align with her personal beliefs.

“I don’t agree with a lot of her opinions on the military, especially even foreign affairs happening with the genocide, Gaza,” Kanaly said.

Despite Kanaly disagreeing with Harris on some things, she ultimately wanted to support the democratic party.

“It’s the lesser of two evils, I rather have her than Trump,” Kanaly said.

Kanaly has been seeing clips of Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump debating on social media. As a media consumer she gets her information from X, formerly known as Twitter, Tik Tok and YouTube.

“Social media plays a big part in how I learn about the election,” Kanaly said.

YouTube streamer HasanAbi is a one of Kanaly’s favorite news sources. HasanAbi creates reaction videos to presidential debate rallies to help break down and explain what each candidate is arguing for.

Kanaly’s dad, who is a history professor, influenced her decision to vote.

“I grew up with him, you know always having something to say about politics or stuff going on. Sometimes I would agree sometimes I would not,” Kanaly said.

Although Kanaly does not know much about the third-party candidates, her best friend Barboza does.  

Barboza shared that she originally planned to vote for Harris but while filling out her ballot she chose a third party candidate. Barboza voted for socialist parties Caludia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia.

“I forsure didn’t want to vote for Kamala and Donald Trump because they’re supporting genocide,” Barboza said.  

When asked why she changed her mind on voting for Harris, Barboza said, “I feel like she’s not serving the democratic party.” 

The socialist party is anti-capitalist, Israeli apartheid, anti-black violence and supports reparations. Barboza shared some of the sources she used to make her decision on voting third party; LAist and socialist voter guides.

As a first-generation student, Barboza never got much information about politics from her family. Her mother never really played a part in advocating for American politics.

“Seeing her struggle as a single mom has really influenced me on how I want to vote on immigration rights,” Barboza said.

The only criticism Barboza has for the socialist party is that Caludia and Karina were not into masking in public. She understands that in other states voting blue (democrat) is necessary but in California she feels voting third party really feels like a viable option.

“I voted third party, because especially in California electoral votes aren’t really blue, so I did it as a small form of protest that I can do,” Barboza said.

Kanaly and Barboza can’t say for sure who they think will win the election as they feel there is a 50-50 chance between Harris and Trump, leaving them eager yet anxious for the results.

“I can’t help but think about it and look forward to it,” Kanaly said. “I just kinda worry about it.”