Support for this program provided by the Gladstone T Whitman 49 Fund and Lafayette alumni Harry S Kirk and JR Peter Hole ran and Pamela Hall ran Bruce Mangan.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Welcome to Campus Crossroads.

Battle of the ballot.

I'm Allie Waldman, Lafayette, class of 2026, and I'm Bridget Coty.

Also from the class of 2026 and will be co-hosting Lafayette's 2024 election broadcast.

More than 8 million young people became eligible to vote in this year's election.

And these first time voters will have a huge impact on who becomes the 47th president.

They are coming of age in a world divided by conflict and a nation polarized like never before.

Navigating the amount of information and conflicting information can be confusing and stressful for this newbie electorate.

In this 2024 broadcast in partnership with PBS 39, we examined Gen Z's views on the election, their concerns, and the issues and forces that are driving them to the ballot box.

With over 240,000 out of State college students in Pennsylvania eligible to register to vote in the Commonwealth, they could play a decisive role in the upcoming election.

Pennsylvania allows these students to register and vote as residents, making them a potential influential group in this battleground state where the margin of victory could be as slim as 60,000 votes.

Pennsylvania stands at the forefront of the 2024 presidential race.

Whoever wins a state is predicted to win the presidency.

With the election potentially decided by a potential mere thousands of votes.

An unexpected factor has emerged out of State College students.

Schools such as Lafayette, Lehigh, and Moravian attract students from around the country, bringing them to Northampton County.

With candidates pressed to find votes out of state, student registrations in Pennsylvania could decide the election.

My name is Max Moeller.

I'm a sophomore student at Lafayette College in the policy Studies program.

I'm here with Chelsea Morris.

How many students have you registered this semester?

A total of, I think 740 some odd student votes, which is almost equivalent to our for a first year class.

Pennsylvania voters are those that come from the online portal.

So out of those 495 registrations, 396 are in Pennsylvania.

So if you vote in new Jersey, where I'm generally from, you kind of know which way that state as a whole is going to vote.

But here you don't know.

And adding on top of that, Northampton County is a swing county.

So in the last 100 presidential elections, the way that Northampton County voted was the way the nation voted.

So people are looking really hard at Northampton County right now because it's a good predictor of how the nation, as a whole is going to vote.

So the purpose of Lafayette vote is to register students to vote, give them the education that they need to make the choice that's right for them.

When they get to the polls.

Lafayette Votes is nonpartisan, solidly nonpartisan.

We don't really care who you vote for.

We just want to know that when you're going to the polls, that you are making the decision that aligns with your values and your beliefs.

I went to Leah's Barbershop in downtown Easton to gather the opinions of local residents on out-of-state student voter.

Chris, how long have you lived in Easton here?

My whole.

Life.

Leo Amelie came over from Italy and a guy he was from and he started this in 1960 and he ran it up until 2012.

I've been here 11 years now and we're still going strong.

When I was in school, you would do, do an absentee ballot and you just voted where you were from.

You don't want to see out-of-state students determine a state.

On a more local level.

How do you feel about these students coming from other states and being able to vote, for instance?

Like local Easton elections.

Picking Pennsylvania state representatives from Northampton County?

More of the local elections.

That gets weird, you know, because, like, what do they even know about the local stuff?

It's a little they're getting the word weird.

Funny.

But, if they're not in-state residents and they're getting targeted to vote in this state, that brings up questions like, why are these organizations so forceful in trying to get these students to sign up or register as, you know, their party?

I mean, it's gone a little bit better.

Sure.

That's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But how long have you lived in Easton?

All my life I've been in the area.

Oh, well, I call it a bell.

Something where it's like a it affects.

I think the last 45 presidents won.

If they won Northampton County, they became president.

Something along the lines with that.

So it is with that being said that with having that much weight, I think it is a little I don't know Colleen either side.

I don't think it's I don't think it's a good idea.

It should be a resident because since it has so much weight when you vote for your area also.

So I think you should vote where you live.

I think there should be possibly like, how long have you lived here?

A term as a resident to be able you can't just come here for six months and and vote in that in that area.

I don't think that makes sense.

I don't agree with that.

Many Lafayette students will be casting their first vote for president in this election.

Sophomore Kylee Messenger talks with some of those students about the most important issues in 2024, their decision to vote in this election and how they get their information.

What issue is most important to you in the 2024 presidential election?

I think probably immigration is probably most important to me.

I would say the borders and border security, probably the economy, mainly because, I'll be graduating in two years and whichever candidate wins, they'll, basically have to I'm starting my, my real my career during their presidency.

So I think that's really important for me to, start my career off in, good economic standing.

The biggest issues I'm voting on are the social issues, such as the right to have an abortion.

The border, probably.

I'll be working down there this winter, and there's been a lot of problems there, hunting land down in South Texas.

So currently in my life, the borders, something I'm concerned about and the state of currently is on this year.

I think probably immigration.

I'm from Denver and that's where a lot of the migrants have been kind of shipped on busses.

And so it's become a really big issue in my city.

So I'm definitely voting based on that.

I think for me is like whether voters come out and actually vote.

And so I guess, like election integrity.

And do you feel.

That you're voting for a candidate or against a candidate?

I feel like I am voting for a candidate this year.

Honestly.

I feel like against a candidate.

I think kind of both.

I'm voting against both for and against.

There's a lot of issues on both sides that I agree and disagree with.

Pretty strongly.

Voting against.

And what sources do you use to stay informed on the election?

I read a lot of stuff from the New York Times and the Wall Street, Journal and Washington Post.

I use, local news networks.

And then I also read articles myself.

I think in this day and age, you kind of have to look at both extremes.

There's I feel like there are there are fewer biased sources, nowadays.

So I look at both extremes and then I also try and look in the middle, you know, I watch news outlets, I read articles, but you have to be aware that everything has a degree of bias to it.

So I try to take that into account when I'm doing research as well.

I get my news from, like, The Wall Street Journal as well as other news sources, specifically television news.

There's a source called Rear Real Clear Investigations.

I've been using that.

It's, pretty informative.

It seems to be fairly unbiased.

I use Ground News, which is on like, social media, like Instagram, and they present headlines and articles from, left, right, center.

And so I get to see the full spectrum.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In the heat of the election, it's easy to see the world as polarized.

But are we really so different?

Are there issues that the two political parties can agree on in the next segment?

We set out to do just that, bringing Republicans and Democrats together in hopes of finding common ground.

Hi everyone.

My name is Bridget Cote and I'm a junior.

I am a international affairs major and a philosophy minor, and I'm going to be running this segment where we're trying to bring Democrats and Republicans together to find common ground and discuss things like perceptions of their party, the way that different candidates are treated, the way that different members of political parties are treated, and the like.

So for our first statement, we live in a polarized country.

Okay, wonderful.

Whoever wants to start us off, feel free.

Sure.

I mean, I can start.

I think that especially ever since 2016, I think our politics has gotten a lot more divisive.

And to some extent, I do feel that it is in part because the stakes have been enunciated much more as and this is what is on the line, especially after President Trump appointed three Supreme Court judges on the Supreme Court.

I think that's when people really started waking up.

As to how much elections can actually mean not just on a presidential level, but also down ballot.

I would place it earlier than Trump.

I think really what we're looking at is I think starting with President Bush, you know, we had out of the 90s, and that was when Bill Clinton was really running, I guess, to the right.

And both parties still included, like vast amounts of people on with varying, like, social views.

You know, you still had more, socially liberal Republicans.

So I think really after the 90s, you have the parties sort much more into really strict, I guess, social liberals, social conservatives.

Regardless of where the.

Polarization started, I think we really need to talk about the effects it has on our culture as a whole, like the way people use politics to justify behavior these days is just not right.

I think too often in today's society, we use political beliefs as a justification to not care about someone or to not participate with that person.

I'd say that we really lost the decorum between the different parties.

It used to be much more.

I know that we both disagree, but let's come together.

Let's talk about this civilly.

Now you see political ads where the first thing is they're saying my opponent is a horrible person.

If they win, we are doomed.

We are going to fail.

And then we see the actual effect that has on people where, you know, Trump almost got assassinated.

And one side is saying, we're so happy he survived.

And then I'm not saying everyone, but they're vocal people who they now think it's okay to think like, I wish he died.

So this next statement is more so about perception of the United States as a whole and our perspective of this.

There is a lack of patriotism in our country.

If you agree, please raise your hand.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

So like common ground.

I don't know if you want to start us off.

I don't know, I guess it's how.

You define patriotism.

I just, I don't really see many people outwardly professing at least especially like most people would not outwardly say America is the best country in the world.

Like, definitively.

And I don't know many people who would like, like if we had a draft, I don't know many people who would like, actually like volunteer.

I just don't see much patriotism.

And I myself would not consider myself particularly really patriotic.

I'd say I take it a step further.

I'd say when you look at the social cultural climate of the US, you look at the post ironic sort of nihilistic sense of humor.

A lot of it's just demeaning the US.

A lot of it looks down on it, doesn't speak really good of it at all, only is looking at it in such a negative way.

And it's always funny.

It's like, yeah, these are jokes.

But that does sort of start to rub off on people and then paint that picture in their mind that maybe we are terrible.

I think the other aspect is, you know, people don't really have a government they want to unite around, right?

Dissatisfaction with Congress.

You know, everyone hates Congress.

You know, the vast majority of Americans don't think it's doing its job.

And, I mean, I feel like to some extent it's in part an overcorrection from earlier to, I think, in the past.

And I also think that this is wrong as well, that we were there were people that were so incredibly patriotic that it was seen as an incredibly bad thing to criticize the government.

And I want to be clear, I think that people should criticize the government, especially when it's doing wrong.

But that doesn't mean that we can't be proud of our country and where we're from.

And nowadays, I think you see the opposite happening, where people are so critical of the government that we fail to recognize the good and the plenty of great things that it has done, not just in the context of the US and for example, lifting people out of poverty and being a home to millions.

And thank you everybody for being here today.

Are Democrats and Republicans.

Our last statement for all our all four of our participants.

I was able to find common ground with memb That makes me very happy after organizing this segment.

So I appreciate everybody being here today again, and I'm happy to see that we were able to find common ground.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yay!

Celebrities also can play a role in helping make up the minds of voters.

Our next segment is about how much sway these stars have.

When it comes to the ballot box.

Maddie Cannon, Isabella Leone and in Alessi will help us answer this question.

Hello, I'm Isabella Leone.

I'm Madeleine cannon.

I'm between Alaska and welcome to Icon impact.

Here in Pennsylvania, every vote counts as the Democrats and Republicans focus their campaign on swing states.

They have tapped into a highly influential group celebrities from songwriters, social media personalities, actors and superstars.

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a former celebrity himself, have assembled a star studded list of supporters.

People like Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Dennis Quaid and Oprah have shared their support in this election, hoping to push their supporters to the polls and maybe even sway their vote.

But celebrity endorsements aren't.

New research suggests that in general, celebrity endorsements can influence someone to buy a product more effectively than if it was promoted by a non-celebrity.

But can it convince you to buy a certain candidate?

If you take something like abortion, you know Beyoncé is not going to convince anybody that, you know, they should change their mind on the issue of abortion, right?

So even if you took a middle of the road issue, though, something where people might really be persuadable and you had that celebrity go up and, you know, to a a candidate platform and make that argument on that issue, the problem that you have is that people still feel really, really polemic, not about the issues necessarily, but about the candidates.

I don't think that they influence me very much because I like to do my own research when it comes to voting, because I feel, yes, it's important to consider what other people are voting for.

But at the end of the day, you're voting to kind of help what you believe in.

My friends don't really trust what the politicians have to say directly.

So hearing someone that they trust and hearing a celebrity that they respect, it definitely sways their opinion.

But generally not.

I wouldn't say they really influenced my opinion at all.

I mean, at the end of the day, most of the celebrities who are endorsing one way or another aren't necessarily somebody I would turn to for political opinions or advice anyways.

If someone that I support and like really like is, has views on a specific candidate, I would keep that in mind and understand that, like, you know, maybe that I wouldn't change my views, but maybe they're, you know, maybe I could understand like why they're saying that.

For some, celebrity endorsements do not impact their support for a candidate, but it does influence their opinion of the endorser.

Others think it is important to not let celebrities political opinions influence how people interact with them.

I kind of take them as more of me learning more about the celebrity rather than politics itself.

Maybe I change their opinion of them as like a person as their character, but I don't think it would, change my opinion of them as like their celebrity.

I generally have a pretty easy time separating the artists from their art.

In the past, celebrities relied on interviews with journalists to get the word out.

But now, thanks to social media, celebrities on both sides can try and influence the votes of their fans.

With the click of a computer key.

Billionaire and owner of X, Elon Musk, posted his public support for Donald Trump on his platform.

I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery, Musk wrote after an assassination attempt.

Elon Musk is an interesting one because, first of all, I would not say that he is a celebrity.

I do think that there's a big difference between people who, by virtue of their money, get lots of attention versus people who by their ability to entertain people, getting attention.

Singer and songwriter Taylor Swift drove more than 400,000 people to vote after her post presidential debate endorsement of Kamala Harris.

She fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them, Swift wrote on Instagram.

If you look at Taylor Swift in 2021, right after Trump was elected, there was, as you may remember, a women's march and lots of celebrities came out and Taylor Swift did not.

She put out a tweet saying, hey, I support those people.

But then she got kind of a backlash from her fans.

And so I think there was some pressure for her to express herself more politically going forward.

It's something that I've thought about a lot just because I feel like Taylor Swift is obviously not a political figure, and I'm not necessarily sure what her educational background is, but to my knowledge thus far, it's not necessarily anything, political science or government related.

Celebrities or celebrities?

Not for political reasons the vast majority of the time.

So I think it's a bit silly to, you know, choose your own political opinions based off of what Taylor Swift or Elon Musk are saying.

I think they're here to stay.

I think as long as there's a 24 hour news cycle in a constant desire for people to just clickbait, just need something to for to connect people to whatever the media organization is, then they're going to keep putting it out there.

It's clear celebrities have become a part of the election process, but in the end, the real rock stars are the voters.

US voters aren't the only ones affected by the election.

People around the world also have a stake in the outcome.

Paulo Garcia moderated a panel of four international students to get their perspectives on the 2024 US elections.

Lafayette College student panelists came from Australia, Taiwan, Paraguay and Russia.

Hi, my name is Sia.

I'm from Paraguay and I'm a sophomore.

Hi, my name is Andre.

I'm a senior and I'm from Russia.

Hi, I'm Isabella Lu, I'm a Taiwanese American.

I'm in the class of 2025.

Hello, my name is Chandra Sanna.

I'm from Australia and I'm in the class of 2025.

The US is one of the most influential countries around the globe.

As such, the US presidential elections are in the eyes of everyone around the globe.

With that being said, what has been the biggest change in your source of political information since moving to the United States?

Now that I mean the states.

I think.

That I'm just more.

Exposed to news regarding.

Political issues.

And I think that back in Paraguay, I was just focusing on politics related to my country.

But here I think that that's something that changed it, and also.

That I'm not only reading the news, but.

Also talking to people about politics.

So I would say that that's one big change that I've seen.

Depending on who wins the next U.S. election.

What do you think is going to be the largest impact on your respective countries?

So for me, I'd say that, a big part of well, there's obviously a war going on between Russia and Ukraine and being have Russian, have Ukrainian.

You know, I'm pretty invested in what what happens and I think, whichever president gets elected and whatever kind of foreign policy they choose to adopt in regards to this issue will pretty significantly affect the outcome of this war.

I think Trump's foreign policy was more strict towards Russia.

I think Putin was kind of afraid of Trump.

Not sure if Putin would be quite afraid of Kamala Harris in a way.

But also, I know that Trump's, stance on Russia, Ukraine war has kind of changed.

And now he he seems to not really care as much or not really comment on it as much.

And he seems to even in some things he was saying, he seems to be kind of pro Russian.

So it does get me a little bit worried.

Finally, for my last question.

What surprises you most about the US political landscape compared to the political landscape in your respective countries?

I feel like it's really weird how people here like I idolize these politicians and it's like really scary.

It's like like they're just parading around the street like this, like, you know, with merch of like, you know, for example, the presidential candidates like names all over them.

It's like, this is like, really unnecessary.

Like they're just humans who are trying to, you know, lead a country.

And it's like, stop treating them like a god.

They're going to be your savior.

Like they're just trying to make the right decision, like trying to do what's best for the country.

I would say that, you know, coming to the US from Australia, I felt like I didn't really experience many culture shocks.

I felt like, at least superficially, we have a lot of similar, things where you have similar values.

But I think the political polarization is quite different.

I think Australia in general is a lot more liberal.

So I think it was interesting for me to sort of compare, like with, like the Democratic and Republican Party stand, you know, political spectrum.

I think another thing that interested me was that, some of the topics covered in the presidential election are not exactly, bipartisan topics in Australia amongst the two major parties.

Some examples can be like gun control.

Like, for example, our conservative prime minister was the one who signed, some of the most harsh, gun control restrictions in the country.

And I think Australians as a whole share, a similar opinion about about owning guns.

And I think similarly for abortion as well, I wouldn't say it's, a bipartisan topic the way it is here.

Thank you all for your insightful responses today.

With the race for the white House as close as ever, a small number of undecided voters could decide who wins.

The perspectives of these voters are vital to understanding the unique dynamics of this election.

From personal attacks.

She should be impeached and prosecuted for her actions.

I took on perpetrators of all kinds.

So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.

To all out violence in the American political system is perhaps as divisive and polarized as any time in recent memory.

Yet despite the deep polarization, an estimated 3% of the American electorate remained undecided in their choice for president.

As of October 1st.

As campaigns intensify, the race tightens and minds are made up.

Undecided voters find themselves at the heart of the outcome.

I have my opinions about both candidates, but quite frankly, I haven't seen anything in Either's rhetoric that has really moved me.

I've been trying to do as much research as possible, because I really want to feel like I'm choosing a candidate I can get behind on a number of policies, but I just haven't found that to be possible.

At the end of the day, it might come down to one issue for me in speaking with undecided voters in and around campus, it felt like people were really willing to share their breadth of perspectives.

But as soon as the cameras came out, that willingness quickly dwindled away.

In a lot of ways, this feels emblematic of 2016, where undecideds or those who weren't willing to voice their opinions ended up voting for Trump.

I think people are scared now.

I speak well at Lafayette.

They don't want to, they don't want to look like Trump supporters, and they're nervous that their friends wouldn't, wouldn't like them.

So there's a strong feeling, I would say, since, the last time Trump was elected, that, people feel it's a highly controversial area and, they don't don't want to get on the wrong side of it.

And someone asked yesterday, I think there are probably Trump supporters in this class, but they never would.

They would never say anything, but it could go the other way.

One thing I've just heard is that, there might be women who are going to vote for Harris, especially on the abortion issue.

And they're not telling their husbands or telling anyone about what they're going to do.

So that would go in a in a different direction, regardless of people's willingness to voice their perspectives.

In swing states like Pennsylvania, Trump and Harris are forging all out battles to win over undecided voters.

I think the main thing about Pennsylvania is that it's a microcosm of the country.

We have a tremendous amount of diversity in the state, and, we have big urban areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and then we have all these rural areas.

You know, we have 67 counties and most of our counties are rural.

That creates, kind of a microcosm of the country.

And so as the election is close for the country, it's also going to be close in Pennsylvania.

Having made many visits to the Lehigh Valley area, Trump and Harris are focusing not only on Pennsylvania as a whole, but on some of its tightest counties.

Well, Northampton County, for better or for worse, has voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1912, except for three.

And those are 1968, 2000, and 2004, when, the Republican won the presidency.

But Northampton County did not vote for the Republican candidate.

Well, for this area, I think the economy is the top issue for most voters.

They're particularly worried about inflation and we do have a large number of low income people in Northampton County, and inflation affects them particularly strongly.

But a lot of voters are also concerned about immigration.

And, I think that's, more salient in this county than I would have expected.

So I think the third issue is abortion, for, for this county.

And that is particularly salient for women.

It's really one of the top most issues for college students abortions.

You know, when I talk to my classes, abortion was always kind of the number one issue that the students raise.

Given that recent polls are showing that 2 to 3% of the population or undecided electorate, you know, don't know who they're going to vote for, is that surprising to you?

Shocking to me.

I'm absolutely shocked how anyone could, be on the fence at this at this point.

Why would you be in the middle?

I don't understand, I don't understand when the choice is so clear to me.

Or at least the choice is, but how can you say.

Well, I don't know.

I don't really know.

As the final days of this momentous election season dwindle down, the undecided electorate represents a stark contrast to the two sided polarization which has plagued recent American politics.

While they may represent only an estimated 3% of the American population without the votes of undecideds in places like Pennsylvania and Northampton County, a candidate will likely see their white House dreams thwarted.

And that concludes our broadcast on the 2024 election from all of us at Lafayette College and PBS.

39 I'm Bridget Coty and I'm Allie Waldman.

Thank you for watching.

And don't forget to vote on November 5th.