Coronado poliltical symposium students address Obama mandatory voting suggestion

President Obama’s comments earlier this week about making voting mandatory, in order to counter increased campaign spending, set off a lot of debate, including in El Paso.

ABC-7 sought reaction from students who are hosting a political symposium this weekend, designed to get local youth more involved in politics.

The symposium, which kicks off Friday night at El Paso Community College and continues Saturday at Coronado High, is called Borderize, it’s being hosted by the group We (Fill In The Blank), which has held several political debates.

“We’re looking to expand to a different horizon and host this symposium and gather high school students in the El Paso/Las Cruces region and bring them together to have their voices heard,” said Seth Krasne, a senior at Coronado, who is president of We (Fill In The Blank). “We’re going to ask the students what they think is important to improve about our community. We have such a unique, really phenomenal opportunity being a border community.”

As for President Obama’s pitch this week about mandatory voting?

“In an ideal world, I think it would be great, everyone would be informed, everyone would know the policies they’re voting on,” said 15-year-old Coronado sophomore Mercedes Munoz.”But that’s just not the case.”

Sixteen-year-old Coronado sophomore Hanaa Aldasouqi added: “I don’t know exactly that mandatory voting is the the solution, but it could help informing the public, because if they’re required to vote they may inform themselves and their peers about what needs to be done in the community.”

“I think it’s interesting proposition and I think it’s good to a certain extent,” said 16-year-old Coronado sophomore Diego De La Torre. “In order to have a full functioning democracy, we need everyone to vote. But then you get into the issue of people not being informed well enough and making uninformed decisions.”

Krasne, 17, had this to say about mandatory voting: “When we look at voter turnout numbers, especially in El Paso, they’re very poor and that’s something we want to attack as an organization. But at the same time, you have to make sure people are informed voters and that’s really what we serve to do.”

Rep. Beto O’Rourke is the guest speaker at We Fill In The Blank’s Borderize symposium at EPCC on Friday night. It continues from 8 a.m to 4 p.m. Saturday at Coronado High and all area students are welcome.

The end goal of the symposium is to produce a “white paper” of suggestions for local leaders from area students.