Ending with Mississippi’s runoff election Tuesday, the 2018 midterms hit records across the nation, and some with experience in politics believe the political climate and nonpartisan education are to thank for it.

2018 was the first midterm election in history to top 100 million votes, with 49 percent of eligible voters participating, according to Grace Segers at CBS News. In New York, 42.1 percent of eligible voters participated, up from 29 percent in the 2014 midterms, according to the United States Election Project.

With a 31 percent increase in voter turnout in the state, there has been much discussion as to reasons behind it.

Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, said most of the turnout increase in New York and across the country stems from the controversial nature of President Donald Trump. Many voters, he said, likely went to the polls in sharp opposition to or in strong support of Trump, despite the president not being on the ballot.

“You have to start with the election of 2016 and then the presidency of Donald Trump,” Reeher said. “It was just a generally high turnout, so I think all of that sort of stems from a reaction to Trump and then the reaction to the reaction.”

Shenandoah Briere, a reporter for the Cortland Standard, said she has seen an increase of interest in this midterm election because people are becoming more involved in the political process.

“There’s been more of a nationalization of politics,” Briere said. “If you look nationally, for the first time in years, we’re electing what people would say are people that look like us, that think like us and are more diverse…We’re having more people that are focused on larger issues.”

Young voters also turned up in record numbers. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement reported that an estimated 31 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 in the U.S. voted in the 2018 midterms, up from 21 percent in 2014.

Allison Rank, a political science professor at Oswego State, said Trump’s presidency has had a powerful effect on young voters to act in a way that aligns with their views – a sort of passion not seen in years past.

“For a lot of students and young people having grown up under the Obama administration, for people who share those views, seeing a very different political figure come in has been particularly jarring,” Rank said. “The polarized space actually works to motivate turnout on both ends.”

The political climate sparked voters’ interest in learning about the political process, which is where media coverage and nonpartisan election education programs can play a role in the results.

Reeher analyses much of the midterm results on the Campbell Conversations, a radio show he hosts weekly on WRVO Public Media, the central New York NPR affiliate. Reeher said he sees himself providing a unique service to the public on his program, informing them about the candidates and political process in a way other forms of media do not.

“I am very concerned and give a lot of thought to the political process itself from the standpoint of citizens and the information they get,” Reeher said. “[The Campbell Conversations are] a form of information that comes from the candidates themselves…but it’s also done in a format that is less controlled by them.”

The League of Women Voters also works to inform the eligible voting public about the political process. Joan Durant, director of voter services at LWV of the Syracuse Metropolitan Area, said LWV’s efforts of knocking on doors and informing people of the issues and candidates is part of what is keeping the democracy of the nation going.

“The biggest thing that we try to do is to make sure that voters get registered and, second, that they become educated and then they actually perform that civic duty of voting,” Durant said. “It’s very easy for us to lose it and to no longer have a democratic state where people are represented by politicians that…carry out the will of the people.”

Vote Oswego, a nonpartisan election education club and class at Oswego State, is meant to encourage young people at the college to cast their ballots. Rank, the professor of the class, said 8.7 percent of Oswego State students voted in 2014, but thanks to Vote Oswego’s efforts, there are signs that number has increased.

“I feel confident that we’ve at least hit that 8.7,” Rank said. “I’d even say I’m probably confident well over 12, 13 percent. I’m sure we’re up.”

Rank said the increase is largely due to Vote Oswego’s efforts to get students involved, but it was not a perfect nor easy process. Many students expressed frustration with the absentee ballot process, with some not knowing when and how they would receive it.

“The challenge is that, while we had a lot of students register and a lot of students request absentee ballots, what became clear on Election Day and in the couple days after is that students were not aware of the administrative aspects of casting a ballot,” Rank said. “I’m concerned that we didn’t do enough or didn’t anticipate enough of the questions or issues that students would have.”

Rank said she would like to see this level of enthusiasm carry over into future elections, but it is unclear whether that will happen.

“There’s a question about whether or not we stay at this really heightened space on elections and midterms or if, in the next midterm, it drops back down,” Rank said. “And I don’t know that there’s a way to predict that.”

Reeher said Trump’s effect on midterms will likely carry over to the next presidential election, but turnout beyond that is hard to tell.

“2020 is obviously going to get an enormous amount of attention, even compared with other presidential elections,” Reeher said. “Whether that carries over into 2022…is hard to say because that’s four years from now, and that’s really an eternity politically…I’d be surprised if we went back to a midterm that was kind of traditional and standard.”

For now, there is focus on how to help the turnout continue to rise. Durant said one of the most important things New York could do to increase voter turnout is change the electoral process by instituting policies like early voting.

“We just have to make it easier for people to vote,” Durant said. “And we know from looking at other states that turnout will go up.”

Briere said the increased interest in politics this year means an increased coverage in the media, which will cycle into more public involvement in the political process for years to come.

“People are becoming more aware of how much politics play a role in their life,” Briere said. “If we’re covering more of these topics, then people are talking about more of these topics, and in turn, we’re covering more of these topics, over and over again.”

Graphic by Shea McCarthy | The Oswegonian