AUSTIN, Texas — We've seen more voters in Travis County and the Central Texas area turn out for the 2020 election cycle than in 2016, as well as the rest of the country.
On Tuesday, KVUE heard from many voters who shared with us their reasons for casting their ballots, including 53-year-old, Jennifer Kerns.
It was her first time to vote.
Here's the conversation KVUE'S Jenni Lee had with the home health care worker:
Jenni: "Why did it take you so long to vote in an election?"
Jennifer: "I didn't really have an interest, didn't want to. I figure that everybody would be voting the right way and knowing my luck, my vote would mess everything up."
Jenni: "It took a lot for you to come out today."
Jennifer: "Yeah it did.
Jenni: How much does it mean to you?"
Jennifer: "A lot. I want to get in there and I want to do this and I hope we get the right one because I don't want to see the elderly people suffer."
Kerns said she was proud of herself for voting.
Others, such as Deb Ploskonka, said she waited until the last minute because she had to research each and every candidate.
But Ploskonka said the election did bring up some difficult feelings.
"I think it has saddened me, the polarization that we're seeing. I would like us to be able to have civil conversations and disagree," said Ploskonka.
Sonia Mirales said it was more important than ever to vote this time around.
"From a personal note, I have a very blended Democratic-Republican heart, that's the way I grew up in my household," Mirales said. "I just took extra time to think about it, maybe I would not vote, and then it was my mother who said, the first thing my great grandmother did when she became a naturalized citizen in Central Texas was vote. So, that really stressed how important it was to do so."
Teresa Robinson is a housing manager for a group home. Robinson said she hasn't had a day off in two months, but because she wants to see change, so she made it a point to vote on Tuesday.
"This is the first day I've taken time to vote," Robinson said. "It's very important that we do. We need a lot of positive change. We need better leaders. So I made sure that I came out even though this is one of the moments I've had to do anything, being I haven't had a day off in like two months because of the COVID and everything that's going on."
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