The largest voter turnout since 1990 was seen at state and local midterm elections last Tuesday, November 6. The race was head-to-head throughout the entire election period and had a voter turnout bigger than ever before, though the official numbers are not yet known. The election resulted in the Democrats winning the House for the first time in almost a decade and the Republican party maintaining hold of the Senate. As of right now, Democrats hold 231 seats in the House, while Republicans hold 198, and six key races remain undecided. As for the Senate, Republicans hold 51 seats compared to the 47 seats held by Democrats, and one race is still undecided .

 History teacher David Beller reflected, “Now we have a split government again; hopefully this will kind of force both Republicans and Democrats to find some sort of middle ground to get things done because one party’s not completely in charge at all three levels.”

 Out of the six constitutional amendments, four passed and two failed. The passing amendments include placing a cap on state income tax cuts, expanding crime victims’ rights, affirming “traditional” methods of hunting and fishing and requiring voters to provide photo ID regulations. The amendment to grant more rights to crime victims is a revised version of Marsy’s Law, which passed in the House in April of 2017. Marsy’s Law gives crime victims the right to receive notice of court proceedings, be present at any proceeding, be heard at some stages of the legal process, and to “reasonably confer” with the prosecutor in the case.

 “I think the biggest amendment that passed was the voter ID amendment… there’s a lot of questions that haven’t been answered by this amendment,” Beller commented on the vaguely written amendment. While the amendment may prevent those who are not eligible to vote from doing so and keep others from voting more than once, it could very well deny certain citizens their right to vote. This amendment could thwart senior citizens, students, disabled people, non-drivers, poor people, and more from exercising their constitutional right to vote, due to inability to obtain a proper photo identification. “I think voting should be really easy and the more difficult you make it to vote, does a disservice to our community. Voter fraud has been proven to be not as huge a problem as some people make it out to be. It [the amendment] is something that is going to hurt more people than it is going to actually fix a perceived problem,” Mr. Beller added.

 The blue wave that is now flowing through Congress brings with it much needed diversity which will aid the government in holding President Trump accountable and abiding of the Constitution, our supreme law of the land. The 2018 midterm elections have broken boundaries, not only by bringing in many more young and female voters, but also by electing more color, women, and youth into office.