By The New York Times (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-02 05:02:46 | Updated at 2024-10-03 06:31:02
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Some students at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside seemed underwhelmed. One noted, ‘This is long, huh?’
- Published Oct. 1, 2024Updated Oct. 2, 2024, 12:53 a.m. ET
In a lounge outside the library at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Tuesday night, more than two dozen students gathered over pizza, chips and lemonade to watch Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota in the final debate of the presidential election.
As the debate neared its end, several of the students said their minds had not been changed about either candidate — or about whether they even planned to vote in November.
In the pivotal battleground of Wisconsin, where presidential elections can be won or lost by only tens of thousands of votes, students like these are intensely sought out, with campaigns and nonprofit groups urging them to register to vote and show up at the polls on Election Day.
The event on Tuesday night was sponsored by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York City that works to increase voting among young people.
Students were given a handout guiding them on ways to analyze the debate and a bingo card filled with phrases to cross out as the debate went on (among them: “fentanyl,” “tax cut” and “American people”). A television showing live fact-checking from the PolitiFact website was set up next to the debate screen.
But for some students, even the prospect of getting to vote in their first presidential election was not enough.
