Election Day 2:00 p.m.

Election Day arrived on the University of Oregon’s campus, and although the weather is cold, the activity around the ballot box at the heart of campus is hot. At least 10 people dropped off their ballots in 20 minutes and the activity was consistent.

I first talked to an older student who was hesitant to discuss his election choices with me. He declined to provide his name, but reminisced on the parallels between the first year he voted, 1984, and today’s election year.

He said that students were just as motivated in the past as they are today, because they know that the decisions made today will affect the students of the future. The amount of people voting, he said, was similar to how it was in the past.

As soon as I finished this conversation, I noticed a sweatered figure holding a clip-on-mic looking curiously at people as they passed. I struck up a conversation with him and found out that he is the director of a documentary about the disillusionment of politics in the U.S.

Daniel, the interviewer, and Uriah, the cameraman, both asked if I would be an interviewee for this documentary. I accepted with the intention of asking my own questions after they were finished.

It was clear to me that Daniel was trying to dig deep into the overall feelings about politics in this country. He asked me questions about the influence of social media on political decisions, the role of third parties, and who I was voting for.

They themselves were both third party voters who cast their ballots for Jill Stein. Uriah, who voted for Trump in the past, is well aware of the outcome for the state of Oregon. He believes that since his red vote won’t make a difference he’d rather vote for a third party so that his vote will have an impact.

Daniel was in a similar situation as Uriah, he wasn’t a republican but wasn’t a democrat either. He also voted for Jill Stein and brought my attention to the fact that votes for her will help to support her campaign in the next election.

Based on the questions he asked me for his documentary I could tell Daniel didn’t really support the dominant two party system we have today. A philosophy major Daniel’s questions about disillusionment reflected his own personal feelings about our political system.