Interviewee: Kyle Moores
Interviewer: Jensen Smith
Location: Remote interview (Columbia,SC and Columbia,SC)
Date: October 10, 2020
Accession #: ELEC 016
Length of Recording:
Summary
Kyle Moores, born in August of 1990 grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina before moving to Columbia, South Carolina. The interview includes recollections of his childhood, his maternal grandparents and travel, his education at the University of South Carolina, and his career as a high school teacher where he emphasizes the importance of civic engagement, including his own activity as a poll worker and campaign volunteer.
Keywords
COVID-19 | History | Civic Engagement | Travel | Working-Class | LGBTQ | First-Time Voters | Ballots | Jaime Harrison | Poll Worker | Campaign Volunteer | Teachers
Recording
Transcript
Jensen Smith: This is an oral history interview for the 2020 Election: Sharing Stories of Civic Engagement oral history project, part of coursework for Honors College class SCHC 326, documenting the perspectives and experiences of those who are engaged in some way in the 2020 election. This is Jensen Smith, the date is October 7th, 2020, and today I’m interviewing Kyle Moores remotely. I’m in Columbia, SC and Kyle Moores is in Columbia, SC.
JS: So, would you start by giving your full name and spelling it?
Kyle Moores: Sure can! So, my name is Kyle Moores. That’s spelled M-O-O-R-E-S and I always tell my students it sounds like s’mores.
JS: (Laughs) Perfect. And where and when were you born?
KM: I was born in August of 1990 and I was born in a small town called Utica, New York and it’s about an hour and a half outside of Syracuse.
JS: Awesome! And is that where you grew up?
KM: Actually no, when I was really, really little my parents moved us to Charlotte and so from the time I was about 6 years old until it was time for me to go to college I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina and then I moved to Columbia, South Carolina because I was an undergraduate at the University of South Carolina.
JS: Awesome. And what was Charlotte like in the time you were growing up? [How] was it—in terms of economics, religion, social activities?
KM: So I grew up in Charlotte during the late 90s, early 2000s, and like a lot of Southern states, North Carolina is definitely part of that like Bible Belt. There were a lot of religious conservatives. But Charlotte, like a lot of Southern states was also a very liberal place where you had a lot of transplants like my parents who came from other states. And so Charlotte always had more of a mix of ideologies but it was always compared to the rest of NC– it was always, much more liberal than the rest of North Carolina.
JS: Gotcha—and so tell me about your parents and your grandparents—their names, where they were from?
KM: So, I was raised by my maternal grandparents. My mom’s name is Jamie, I have never met my biological father. So, I was raised by her parents– their names are Terry and Judy, and they will be 69 and 71 years old this year. In a lot of ways, they are stereotypical baby boomers. They grew up in a small New York town, where most people worked for the military or they worked in the copper mills. My grandparents didn’t pursue either of those, my grandmother became a nurse, and so she worked as a mental health nurse for most of my life and my grandfather was– he worked as a custodian by trade. So, very middle-income, working-class family, we were always kind of a paycheck-to-paycheck family, and I didn’t really appreciate that as much growing up, because they did a really great job of shielding us from that. But one thing I think that really influenced me a lot as an adult, is that they always taught me that it is not okay to treat people differently just because they’re not the same as you. They were really big on accepting people from different races and religions and backgrounds and that was something that always really stuck with me. And I credit a lot of that to my mom being a mental health nurse and working with people who are used to being stigmatized. So that was one of the big values in our house, is just you always treat people with respect even when they’re not the same.
JS: That’s a great value to have, that’s really awesome to hear. Sounds like you were very inspired by them growing up. And, in terms of other inspirations were there any kind of family traditions you guys had growing up?
KM: So I think the big thing that I didn’t even think of it as a tradition when we were doing it, but I didn’t realize until after I grew up is- I came from a family where we loved to travel. And it wasn’t always like big mega trips, but it was very common for my grandparents to wake up on a Saturday morning and just be like “Get ready, get your stuff! We’re gonna go on a trip today” and we would take a weekend trip to Charleston or we would go follow the minor league hockey team in Charlotte– we would go to their away games all over the Southeast. And so we traveled a lot and that influenced me a lot more than I realized, because as I grew older I found out that unlike a lot of people I knew, I’d been to a lot of places and I’d met a lot of different kinds of people and I had experienced a lot of different things that people my age who maybe never left their hometown, they didn’t really get to experience that. And I think that that has had a really big impact on me personally and politically just in terms of, I think that that’s important– I think we need to get out and we need to see places that are different from where we live.
JS: Yeah that’s awesome, so in terms of carrying forward those traditions, have you traveled a lot in your adult life as well? And have you maybe perhaps gone more internationally or across the country more?
KM: So absolutely yes to both questions. Um, when I was in college I studied abroad in Prague in the Czech Republic and I spent an entire semester in Central Europe. It was 11 years ago– I turned 30 this year– I went 11 years ago and it is to this day the most formative experience of my entire life. First of all being in Europe, being in a different part of the world where everyone has different customs and expectations and cultural norms. But also, like learning how to be an adult, really, in the world– especially 2009 we had smart phones but it wasn’t like it is now, so I really was away from everyone that I knew. So I have been able to branch out to do more international travel. But I also have made it a priority, every year, me and my closest group of friends we do what we call “Friendcation” and we just pick a random place and we’ll just be like “alright we’re gonna go here for a week.” So a few years ago we rented a cabin in the middle of the woods in Kentucky for a week, last year we went to New Orleans for a week, so yeah that has always been something that I’ve made a priority because I wanna see so much more of the world than just what’s here in Columbia.
JS: I completely agree. I’m supposed to study abroad in Madrid in the Spring.
KM: Oh, I’ve got my fingers crossed, that you still get to go pending COVID?
JS: We find out on October 15th. So we’ll see. Um, but yeah, I completely agree. I think those experiences internationally, or how you learn about– even in your own country, I think that seeing the differences is so eye opening to, you know, everything, even related to politics, just seeing other types of countries and how they run things is really a cool experience. And so, you touched on this briefly, but who do you think had the most influence on you growing up? And who did you look up to?
KM: So the three people who influenced me the most growing up were my grandparents, and well she’s my aunt, but because I was raised by my grandparents, she was always more of a big sister to me. And they had the biggest impact on me growing up, just being someone who was raised cross generationally. And someone– the rest of my family was in New York, we’re in North Carolina, we’re like, separated away. So they had really the biggest impact on my formative years. And they influenced a lot about my beliefs in terms of, I always want to be self-sufficient to the best of my ability. They instilled the importance of always voting, no matter what. They instilled the importance of standing up for the things that you think are right and that, you know, there is such a thing as “good trouble”. And so they had probably the biggest impact on me there. And then my aunt’s big impact. She was– she’s 11 years older than I am. And so watching her be the first one to move away from home and watching her, go out there and chase her dreams and try to make it, and then even when she had setbacks, to pick herself back up and to switch positions and just go at it again. That inspired me a lot. And I don’t know sometimes I think I should tell her that more because, that inspires me more than I think she realizes.
JS: That’s awesome. That is awesome. Um, and so moving into your education. I know you mentioned that you attended USC. Could you tell me just in a little more in-depth about your educational background, what you studied, stuff like that?
KM: Absolutely. So, I enrolled in USC in 2008. I was originally going to be a journalism major, like a lot of college students you go in thinking one thing, and then lots of life happens and you realize you’re going to go out a totally different direction. So, I actually ended up– I graduated in 2012, with my Bachelor’s in history. Then I went back and graduated in 2013 with a master’s in teaching. And I started my journey as a high school teacher. And the time since then I’ve gone back again, for a [Master’s degree] in 2019, in administration, and I am currently working my way through the PhD program.
JS: Congratulations!
KM: Yeah, so my, my goal is, I promised myself that I would get my doctorate while my grandparents were still alive. So that has been my big goal.
JS: That’s really awesome. That’s very cool to hear. Um, so you’re a history major. So, I’m sure you learned a lot about civic engagement throughout your time [participating] in elections and things like that; what presidential election was happening during your time in college?
KM: So my freshman year was the 2008 election where President Obama was elected for the very first time. And like a lot of people my age, I was really caught up in how cool that was. Not just because we liked President Obama, he really appealed to the younger generation, but also it wasn’t lost on us that we were part of the generation that gets to elect the first black president in American history. And that was so cool. And so formative for us, especially the big thing from that campaign that still resonates with me, all these years later, was that original slogan that “Yes, we can.” And that idea behind Obama’s message of just like, never give up hope, always keep pushing, even when things look really, really dark. Always remember that you have a voice and you have power. And that has never left me, that is something that I still think about often.
JS: That’s awesome. Um, so you touched on it briefly, you guys were, you know, incredibly excited to be part of that generation to elect the first African American president. I would say nowadays, college students are increasingly becoming more interested in politics. I think that the younger generation is starting to take more of an active stance. But what do you think the general tone towards politics was on campus during your time at USC? (Unintelligible)
KM: Yeah. So, while I was there, I think that I was at Carolina during a time when it was kind of a period of transition. Because, you know, as I had said, we had social media and things like that in 2008. But I still remember because of that generation, I remember when Facebook was invented, I remember what it was, I remember when you could only get a Facebook if you were in college, and when they first started letting us get them in high school, and how cool you were if you’re one of the high school kids with a Facebook page. Um, and I think that social media really increased the level of engagement of younger people with politics, if for no other reason, then you had politicians like President Obama, even whether you support them or not, like our current president, who realized the power of modern media, and realized, “hey, if I can put my messages in a YouTube clip, or in a Snapchat story, or nowadays in a TikTok, I can reach a lot of people and get them to at least listen to my message.” So, when I first started going to Carolina, I think that we were probably as engaged as would have been considered normal for that time. So like, some people cared a lot, a lot of people really didn’t. But as I was there, and as social media became more ubiquitous, people’s level of engagement climbed with it.
JS: Absolutely. Yeah. And we actually will be touching a little bit more later on social media and the news media, so I’m going to be really interested to hear your perspective on that in a little bit. But, so my next question is more going back to your career path right now. I understand you’re a high school history teacher. Could you tell us kind of about your career path? Did you immediately go into that after school?
KM: Yeah. So um, when I finished my Masters in 2013, I immediately did go into teaching. I spent four years working at Lower Richland High School here in Columbia, in Richland 1, and at the end of that four years, I was just ready for a change. I needed a different challenge. So I spent a couple of years working in Darlington, South Carolina, very, very rural community– totally different from everything that we were doing here. And I am now transitioning back to working at Eau Claire [high school], which is also in Richland 1. So I’ve seen some teaching in the urban setting and teaching out in the rural setting. And, I’ve gotten to experience those differences in the types of communities and the types of schools that we have. And to be perfectly honest, you know, think about civic engagement, being a teacher has made me even more civically engaged than I already was before. Because, you know, people don’t realize school boards are elected, and City Councils are elected and these people who make those decisions about when you’re going to go to school, and how you’re going to go to school, and what that’s going to look like– those are elected officials, and we’ve got to hold them accountable.
JS: Yeah, especially right now, you know, with the conflict between in-person classes and virtual learning. What are you guys doing right now? And how do you think the process was for kind of making that decision up in the elected officials area?
KM: So Richland 1, is doing they called it a phased-in model approach. So phase one, which is what we’re currently still in, is fully virtual– the levels of spread of the virus in the community are considered to be too high for it to be safe. So, we are still in a fully virtual, everybody’s learning online model. We are starting the discussions about what it’s going to look like to transition into phase two, which is what’s called a hybrid model, where we will basically take the students who said they were willing to come in for face-to-face, and we divide them into two cohorts. Cohort One will come to school two days during the week, Cohort Two will come to school two different days during the week. That way, we never have the full student body in the building all at one time. Um, and we’ll do that for however long virus levels indicate that that’s necessary. And then if it’s ever deemed safe, we’ll transition back into phase three, which would be the traditional face-to-face model. Um, I was really proud of Richland 1 for the way that they handled it. But I also know that Richland 1 is kind of fortunate in a messed up way. Because the reason we’re able to handle it the way that we are, is because we don’t have a lot of loud parents. The districts where you’re seeing a lot of fight about whether or not to send students back face-to-face are districts where the parents are much more likely to be loudly protesting and saying that they demand we send the kids back to school face-to-face fully. Our district doesn’t have as many of those. And so, it’s a lot easier for our school board to just kind of ignore the loud ones. Yeah, and focus on what the science is telling us. So, I’ve been really pleasantly surprised.
JS: Yeah. And how do you think your students have been impacted by this virtual setting? Do you see it being effective?
KM: Oh, killing them, I think it’s killing them. Um, because like this year, I’m teaching ninth grade for the first time. And I mean, you’re in college right now. So you can imagine, I imagine being 14, and you’re at home during the day now. And it’s basically just on you to decide that you’re going to log into class like you’re supposed to, and you’re gonna do your assignments like you’re supposed to, and you’re gonna keep up with that. Lot of 14 year olds don’t have that level of self-motivation.
JS: Right.
KM: And the school I teach, a lot of my students come from more working-class families. And so, a lot of my parents are at work during the day. Or if they’re not at work during the day, they work overnight shifts, so they’re asleep during the day. And as a result, they can’t hover over their kid and force their kid to be doing all of their work. And so I think, for students who are very self-motivated, and for students who have access to good internet and all of the things that they need, they’re doing okay. The rest of our kids, they’re struggling, and it really sucks for us as teachers because we want to have them back. I want nothing more than to have my kids in front of me because it’s the easiest way for me to teach them. But it’s not safe. And our bigger concern on top of it not being safe, we talk about what’s best for our student and the argument I always bring back to parents is, you bring up the trauma that they’re dealing with. Now, imagine what happens trauma-wise if their teacher dies from COVID. Or if they get COVID and bring it home and one of you gets sick and dies from COVID. And now they’ve got survivor’s guilt. No, it’s, it’s just a really crappy, no win situation.
JS: Yeah, COVID in general, no win in any facet.
KM: We all lost in 2020. Everyone.
(Laughter)
JS: I totally agree. So in terms of the content of your history classes, what US history topics, and specifically, maybe historical elections, do you tend to teach the most in your classes?
KM: Okay, so the elections when I was teaching US History, the elections that are the big ones to talk about. The election in 1800, between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, this one is super important, because in a lot of ways, it is the definitive birth of the two-party system in America. John Adams, representing the Federalist party at the time, Thomas Jefferson representing what was called the Democratic-Republicans at the time. But that was the birth of the two-party system. So we always talk a lot about that one, and about how George Washington warned us 200 years ago that political parties are bad, and nothing good comes from them, and how we ignored him. And here we are. So we talked about that one a lot. We talked about Lincoln’s election, because his election ushers in the Civil War. We talked about the election of Andrew Jackson, because he was the first president elected by people who didn’t own property. And then, I talk a lot about Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull-Moose party, because, it is the best example of how third-party candidates can change an election. So those are the big ones that we discuss in US History. Other than that, there are certain presidents that they need to know. But those are the only elections that we really focus on because of their long-term impact on our political system.
JS: Right. And see, it’s funny, I remember learning about some of those elections in my high school US History classes. So seems to be—
KM: I’m proud of your teacher.
JS: Yeah, pretty across the board. I remember learning about the birth of the two-party system and the exact thing he said, you know, George Washington
JS: So obviously, teachers are incredibly influential in guiding their students through many aspects of life. In what ways do you try to educate your soon-to-be voting high school students about civic responsibility?
KM: So some of the big things that I do, I am really big every year making sure we do multiple voter registration drives. That is one of my big pushes because like, it is so easy to register to vote: scvotes.org, do you have a driver’s license? It’ll take you five minutes. So, I’m big on making sure that we provide them with lots of opportunities to get registered. When I was in Darlington, I was really fortunate– one of my students, their parents worked for the General Assembly, he was the local representative for Darlington County. So I was able to have him come in as a guest speaker a few different times. I taught a law education class. And when we taught law ed, one of the things that I really taught my kids about was lobbying and the importance of– these people work for you. And we actually saw an awesome example of that in Darlington, we had one of our 10th graders write the City Council, because anytime that it rained, his road would flood and he wouldn’t be able to go to school. So, he wrote the City Council and the county paid to pave his road.
JS: Oh, wow.
KM: Because he took that initiative to actually write into his elected official and was like, “I’m a high school student at Darlington High School, and every time it rains, I don’t get to go to school because the road floods out” and got that changed. So I tried to show them those tangible ways that you can make a difference, even at a young age. And I also talked to them about volunteering as a poll worker, especially because you don’t have to be a registered voter to work at the polls.
JS: That’s awesome. And so many people say that young adults don’t often exercise their right to vote enough, and could ultimately swing elections the other way if they did show up to the polls; what do you think has prevented young adults and first time voters from voting in the past?
KM: I think the big thing that gets in the way of younger people voting is when you learn about our voting system, especially when you learn about the Electoral College. It’s really easy to feel like, “my vote doesn’t matter.” I hear that a lot from students in– South Carolina is a very, very conservative Republican state in a lot of our area. And so for a lot of my students who don’t share those beliefs, it’s really easy for them to feel very discouraged, because they just feel like, “well, it doesn’t matter if I vote for the Democratic candidate, because in South Carolina, the Republican’s gonna win every single time.” Um, and so one of the things I try to show them with our maps and with some of the data that we’ve got is, states are a lot more swing states than we realize. South Carolina seems like a Republican state, because the Republican candidate almost always wins the election. But, if you look at demographic indicators, we have a high non-white population. We have a high college educated population, we have a decent percentage of people living in the suburbs. Those are three predominantly Democratic voting blocks. And if you look at our governor elections, they’re almost always decided by a few thousand votes. So, I try to point those things out to my kids, just because yeah, it seems like your vote doesn’t matter. It feels like your vote doesn’t matter. But look at these actual numbers. 5000 people, that’s two high schools. If we can get people from two high schools voting, that’s 5000 people. So just showing them that they have more power than they think they do.
JS: Yeah exactly. And do you think, for the 2020 presidential election, do you think more young people will show up to vote in this election? And why or why not?
KM: I think more people in general, are going to show up to vote in this election. And the reason why is a combination of the pandemic and the crisis that is our current government. The pandemic has shone a light on a lot of deep-seeded problems within our existing government structure. And they are bad enough that like, people are sounding the alarm that our democracy is at risk. Right now, these are dictator behaviors, these are authoritarian behaviors. And whenever you get that level of fear and engagement on both sides, you’re gonna see a huge increase in the number of people who are paying attention and trying to vote. So I do expect to see more people try to vote this year. And the lines that I’ve been passing every day on my way home from work, tell me that people are already lining up to do it.
JS: Awesome. That’s great. I am looking forward to hopefully a lot more people voting in this election. Um, and so you had mentioned that you have been in the past, a campaign volunteer. Could you go in depth on your experience with that?
KM: Absolutely. So I’ve been doing a lot of volunteering this election cycle with the Jaime Harrison Senate campaign. I don’t appreciate Lindsey Graham as our current Senator. And I don’t appreciate the number of times that he has completely gone back on his own words, and his lack of credibility. And so, I have done a lot of advocacy and volunteer work with the Harrison campaign. I’ve done volunteering on calling, I’ve done some volunteering on voter registration, and I’m currently signed up on election day to help drive people who do not have transportation to the polls.
JS: Awesome. That’s really awesome. I watched the debate between Jaime Harrison and Lindsey Graham and I get so excited every time I see Jaime Harrison’s up in the polls. So hopefully, hopefully the votes—
KM: He did great.
JS: Yeah, he really did. He really did great. And so I also understand that you were a poll worker. Is that kind of in the same wheelhouse? Or is that a separate role you took on?
KM: So being a poll worker is separate because of the way that you go about the two. So volunteering with a campaign, you reach out directly to whichever party that person is nominated by. So working with the Harrison campaign, you reach out to the South Carolina Democratic Party. If you wanted to work for Senator Graham or someone, you could reach out to the Republican Party. So when you volunteer, with the campaigns, you’re either working directly with the candidate or their party. When you’re a poll worker, the polls are run by your county. And so every county has their own Election Commission, and you have to sign up through them and depending on the county you’re in, it is easier or harder, like Richland County notoriously has a terrible Election Commission. I have some friends who volunteered to be poll workers in August and have not heard anything. So it can involve a lot more follow-up, [but] volunteering for a campaign, they’re normally very quick to get ahold of you because they think you’re either trying to offer your time or your money. And they want both of those things. The Election Commissions, they just drag their feet a little bit more.
JS: And so how many past presidential elections have you had the opportunity to vote in?
KM: I have voted in– so the first one I was eligible to vote in was 2008. So this will be my fourth presidential election, and my 12th election overall, because I also vote in the off-year elections.
JS: Awesome. And I’m just actually going back to your campaigning, where this question just popped in my head. Have you volunteered for prior elections? Or is this kind of the first time you’ve taken on that campaign role and poll worker role?
KM: So this is the first time that I’ve really taken on an active volunteering role. And a lot of that is just, I’m in a better position in my personal life to be able to do that now. You know, the first two elections that happened while I was a voting age, I was actively an undergraduate. And then the most recent presidential election, it was my first year in a brand new school, I had a lot of big changes that had been happening. So this year was the first time where the rest of my life was really stable enough. And I also care a lot more. Yeah, I’ve always cared. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve cared even more. So like, just a bit of a personal background story. I’m part of the LGBT community and so like, in a state like South Carolina, where gay rights are, you know, still not where they need to be, those issues matter a lot to me. And so I’ve taken on more of an advocacy role as a result.
JS: Awesome. Really glad to hear that. Um, and so, just in terms of the 2020 presidential election, does it feel historically different to you in anyway?
KM: This feels very much to me, as a historian, this feels very much like what we would call a “bellwether election.” And what I mean by that is, the result is going to tell us something about America one way or the other. This feels very much like an election where if President Trump is to be re-elected, this feels very much like a Kristallnacht, a Hitler takes over Germany, the end of our formal democratic years, based on a lot of his rhetoric about “Oh, 12 more years, 16 more years, wait till I get in,” blah, blah, blah. Whereas if Joe Biden were to win, it feels more like the country is trying to soft reset, where we’re all just like, “okay, we went crazy for a couple years there, let’s calm that back down and sort this out.”
JS: Yeah, I mean, this is the first presidential election I’ll ever vote in and I think even as I’ve become more educated by going to college and meeting people of different walks of life, this election to me, feels very urgent, and it feels like, um you know, the outcome of this will really impact the LGBTQ community, the African American community, communities where people are more in the minority, like it feels very much–
KM: Like the type of—Yeah, feels like the type of election where 20 years from now kids are going to ask you, “what were you doing in 2020?” [and] “what did you think when 2020 was happening?”
JS: Exactly. And so do you think that young people, more specifically, maybe your high school students, do you think that young people realize how different this election is?
KM: I think on a certain level, they realize it’s a big deal. But I don’t think they realize why. And to like, relate it to something more personal for me, I would relate it to like a 9/11 moment. I was, I was in the sixth grade when 9/11 happened. And I remembered even being 11 years old, you knew that what was happening was a big deal, you knew that something really, really important was going on, because it was all any of the adults are talking about. It’s all anybody wants to hear, like, you know, something big has happened. But you’re not entirely sure. Like, why is this so big and so important? And I think this election to me has felt really similar for my students where it’s like, they can tell this is a big deal. This matters, it’s important, but they’re not necessarily sure why. Yeah, it’s so historic.
JS: Yeah. That makes that makes a lot of sense. Um, yeah, I mean, I think like, as only as you learn more and grow older, you kind of understand implications. Awesome. And then my next question is about voting style. So do you tend to believe in more of a straight ticket voting methodology? Or do you tend to go candidate by candidate and base your choices off of individuals research?
KM: I don’t like straight ticket voting, because I believe in country over party, I am a much more liberal person than I am a conservative, but I still believe in country over party, and that you should never just say, oh, everybody in this party is automatically good. Um, I also believe in soft term limits. You know, term limits aren’t officially a thing, and codified for our senators and stuff. But you know, even if Lindsey Graham weren’t an awful senator who I want to vote out anyway, you’ve been in office for four terms now. 18 years is enough. I need new blood, new ideas, somebody who is more plugged into South Carolina than into Washington. But I will also admit that even I have been guilty of not being as informed on some of my down ballot candidates as I feel like I should be.
JS: Exactly, yeah just because you probably have the knowledge as a history teacher, and I don’t, what is the actual limit where Lindsey Graham would have to not be able to run anymore?
KM: There is not one. There are there are no term limits for Senators or Representatives in the House at that general level.
JS: That’s what I thought, but I wanted to clarify because, yes, 18 years is certainly a long time.
KM: Yeah. And so the reason he’s been in for that long is so there are no limits, but Senate terms are six years compared to House terms are only two.
JS: Gotcha.
KM: So since he’s a third term, Senator, he’s been in office for 18 years.
JS: Gotcha. Gotcha. And then moving more towards the media, which we kind of touched on earlier. Many people from both the Republican and Democratic parties say that partisan media sources have influence this election greatly. So, what is your overall view on the media coverage of this election?
KM: So, I have a bit of a nuanced view of media coverage. Number one, I was a journalism major once upon a time. So for me, at the end of the day, I never lose sight of the fact that journalists have a job. They have a job, and they have a role within our society. So, like the same things that people like the president hate journalists for, that is their actual role within our society. They are the watchdog that reports on what people are doing and are how we keep holding people accountable. So I understand that, I think where news media has not lost their way, but where they’ve been altered in a way that has hurt their reputation, is the 24-hour news cycle and this need to get traffic. “I need clicks because clicks are ad dollars. I need views because that’s more revenue for our site.” And as a result, we’re more likely to go with sensationalized headlines, we’re more likely to have one or two stories dominate things. And also, the news industry has been really hurt by consolidation. A lot of our best reporting was done by your local newspapers and a lot of local newspapers don’t exist anymore. Um, and so we have a lot more of a nationalized media. But I don’t blame them themselves for the environment we’re in. At the end of the day, what happens is, you get to choose which media sources you want to read. And most people will only seek out the sources that validate their own opinions, right? Or they will try to find reasons why the other ones are wrong.
JS: Exactly, so how do you think voters should go about getting their information without being swayed or coerced by either side?
KM: So I really like- there’s an awesome infographic out there that is a chart of media bias and it shows the spectrum of conservative to liberal going left to right, and it shows the spectrum of very reliable, in-depth reporting, to not-at-all-reliable, in-depth reporting. And they just assign media outlets to different tiers based on their level of quality. I always recommend that to people, just in terms of if you want to find a good place to start, start with the places that are in the middle on the top. These are your centrist reporting and they are doing very high quality, high level, in-depth investigative reports. As far as things to avoid, I generally advise people to avoid places like Breightbart, Infowars, OAN– places that are really, really hyper Left, or really, really hyper Right. Because the information you’re gonna get from them most of the time isn’t reporting, it’s what we call punditry. It’s just people making guesses based on things. I also really recommend, get a lot of your American news from international sources because they have no reason to give you a spin.
JS: Yeah, that’s actually really great advice I’ve never even thought about that.
KM: I recommend to a lot of people, get a lot of your American news from places like the BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters– places that are not necessarily focused in the US, because they don’t have the same pressures on them. The BBC especially, they are chartered– within their charter with the British government, they are required to be objective reporters and to give equal amounts of time to both sides of an issue.
JS: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I’m an International Business major so they really emphasize, you know, keeping up on international news and all of those sources I’ve read for my international news, but I’ve never thought to look up what’s going on in America on those sources. So that’s something I’ll definitely start doing. That’s really cool.
KM: That’s also really great—because especially since you said you’re studying international business, it’s also really great because it helps you understand going in— “What is this country’s opinion of me right now? I’m about to go meet with this German businessperson, how do they feel about my country right now?”
(Laughter)
JS: That’s very true, I should know that going into international business. It’s important to know I’m not hated as an American.
KM: Yes. Or if you know “I know going in they’re going to assume this certain thing, I should be aware of this going in.”
JS: Right, exactly. So, moving more towards COVID-19 and the impact on the election, how do you think it has affected the presidential election in general?
KM: So you’ve got the big push for mail-in voting and the absentees, so like people being encouraged to maybe consider not going in to the polls, and then as a result of that you have the presidents big kerfuffle alleging that absentee voting is a recipe for fraud, even though there are still– as of right now anyway– no studies to back that up. There’s no data to legitimize that opinion. But as a result, you’ve got that going on and now you’ve had kind of the reverse backlash of well, wait a minute maybe if you can vote in-person, you should think about voting in-person instead of absentee, because people’s biggest fear right now is that their vote won’t be counted. I think that is people’s biggest fear—we’re in a weird, unprecedented election, we’re gonna have to vote so differently anyway and now people are super worried, what is someone gonna do to try to make my [their] vote not count?
JS: Right, yeah, I vote as a Marylander—I’m from Maryland so I have to do absentee ballots and same thing for me I’m very anxious—is this gonna get where it needs to go? You know? I haven’t even gotten my ballot yet, when is it coming?
KM: So when it comes, I’m pretty sure Maryland is a state where you can do this—when it comes, mail it back as soon as you can but when it comes, I’m pretty sure they’ll have a tracking number associated with your ballot when you mail it back, so you’ll be able to check the status—did it get sent back? Was it received? Was it accepted? When was it accepted? So then you’ll know.
JS: Oh that’s good, that’s awesome. I’ll be checking that quite often after I send it back. And so moving towards that, do you think that COVID—because of the mail-in voting and just the polling places in general, do you think that COVID will affect voter turnout in any way?
KM: I don’t think COVID is going to affect voter turnout. What I think the impact that COVID is gonna have, with the way that it’s changing how we vote, is I think there is virtually no chance you will know who won the election on Tuesday night.
JS: Right.
KM: I don’t think we will know for- I mean it could be a couple weeks.
JS: Exactly, that’s actually one of our big discussions we had in this class the other day. We talked about how long it’s gonna take them to just count the ballots in general. So that’ll be an interesting thing to see. But, I just have two more questions for you.
KM: Awesome.
JS: One is, what is your biggest advice to first time voters? Since you obviously have day to day interactions with people who are probably gonna be voting for the first time this year.
KM: My biggest advice to first time voters: as long as you’ve got your photo ID, no one can turn you away at the polls. Don’t let anyone try to intimidate you from voting, try to turn you away from voting. If someone tries to get in your face about who you’re gonna vote for, walk past them. They’re breaking the law.
JS: Yeah.
KM: So that is my number one piece of advice. Voting is your right. It’s not a privilege, it is your right as a citizen of this country. Don’t ever let anyone take it away from you.
JS: Thank you. That is great advice, I didn’t even know people did that (laughs), so that is crazy. Then my last question is, what is your biggest takeaway from all your civic engagement throughout the years?
KM: My biggest takeaway from all my civic engagement, is if we were more engaged as a society everywhere, our communities would be so much better. That has been my biggest takeaway, especially as someone who has traveled internationally, Americans have a lot to learn about caring about our local government. So yeah that’s my big thing, we need to care more about our local governments.
JS: I agree, I think it definitely gets overshadowed, especially right now with all this craziness. I think definitely a more local focus wo