5:00 pm rolls around. Anthony Rotondaro stores his files away safely in his desk and finishes the remains of his late afternoon coffee. His blackberry beeps with notifications flooding in from colleagues and messages from home. He has one event scheduled: a trip to the voting polls.

It’s 2012, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney and president Barrack Obama are anxiously awaiting for the results from voters like Anthony.

When the polls finally close after a long day, the news breaks through media outlets across the nation that president Barrack Obama will be staying in office for another four years. A duty has been fulfilled by the American people, and now it is time to wait for the next election.

When asked what motivates him to vote, Anthony responded simply. “It’s a civic duty. It’s a responsibility as a citizen of this country.”

If voting is our responsibility as American citizens, then why is voter turnout so low?

Bernie Sanders, candidate for the Democratic nomination of the 2016 presidential race, has been winning the hearts of millennials and has become a source of motivation for young voters. He has wooed with ideas like free college tuition, something that seems almost unrealistic. But with those extreme ideas (ideas that are never shared), a hopeful following grows, but so does harsh criticism.

Matthew Rotondaro is a senior Chemistry major at Fairfield University, and is also the president of his class. He is no stranger when it comes to politics; in fact, he dressed up as George W. Bush in the fifth grade for Halloween. As his sister, I’ve listened to him discuss his political opinions for years. Just because we are enrolled in different colleges now doesn’t make that any different.

From the beginning, Matthew thought the election was going to come down to either Republican candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Even though Sanders has managed to engage the youth with politics, Matthew still does not think he has a chance for the Democratic nomination.

“I think, in all honesty, that Bernie Sanders will have no influence in the amount of young people going out to vote,” he said “He has no chance in being the democratic nominee, especially after South Carolina on Friday.”

To summarize, Sanders lost by a landslide to Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina primary. If you Google “Bernie Sanders South Carolina”, you’ll see either horrifying numbers or pleasantly surprising numbers (it all depends on which candidate you are backing).

Like Anthony, Matthew voted in the 2012 presidential election because it’s a civic duty of his. His vote came down to the difference in policies between Obama and Romney, and although the candidate he voted for lost, Matthew stressed how you have to keep voting.

Out of the eight other people I spoke to about politics, Matthew was the most passionate.

I reached out to a cousin in Ohio who shares too many incorrect politic articles on Facebook for some light, humorous content to include in this blog post.

Social media plays a large roll in her daily life, and I could see how it effected her political opinions. Heather Maddox voted in the last presidential election because according to her, Obama motivated her.

“He was someone different who we hadn’t seen in office yet. He was funny, but serious at the same time,” she explained to me. “We were making history, and I wanted my vote to have a part in that.”

Heather was like many others in that election. Matt Neumann, a student at Syracuse University, expressed the same thinking: history was being made, and for some reason that vote seemed to be more meaningful. (Matt voted in the 2012 election, not the 2008 one)

When I say history was being made, one can assume it was because of Obama’s race. For the first time, the man sitting in the oval office was not a white old man. Does that mean that a vote for Hillary Clinton may feel more meaningful to certain people because if elected, she would be the first female president?

I reached out to two other cousins (one on my father’s side and the other on my mother’s side). Caitlin Connolly identifies as “one of those crazy liberals”, and agrees with most of Sander’s policies. As a student at Columbia University, she feels as if she is surrounded by liberal ideologies daily.

“People don’t vote, and we have a low voter turnout. I think younger people view their vote as insignificant.”

The 2012 election was her first election, and because the candidate she voted for won, she preaches how each and every vote counts.

“You can’t get discouraged. You just have to view it as your job.” She said.

Out of the 10 people I talked to who voted in the 2012 election, one thing was common throughout: the idea that voting is a civic responsibility that has to be taken seriously, regardless if the candidate you voted for wins or loses.

“It only happens every couple of years, why willingly miss out on it?”