and finally tonight if this is a low turnout election as expected youth voter involvement could have a significant impact organizers have been ramping up efforts at college campuses across the state to register more firsttime voters and Spark their interest in local elections Ted Goldberg visited a political science class at month University where one of the state's most expensive and competitive legislative races is playing out to find out what's sending young voters to the polls as new jerseyans head to the polls today don't expect young people to make up much of the votes they don't feel that their voices are hurt right and it it kind of creates this vicious cycle where if candidates aren't paying attention to them they're not going to turn out to vote elected officials will continuously not pay attention to the issues that are important to them Steve Chapman is a political science professor at Monmouth and he thinks young voters will turn out in low numbers Statewide he teaches a course about the history and function of America's party system and and while he isn't demanding that his students vote he hopes his class will make them more likely to pull the lever my main goal is to make these students better educated right and and hopefully from that they will find the importance of voting I really like a lot of people don't really know how the government operates so I thought this would be a good uh you know stepping stone towards understanding you know the intricacies of legislation I actually didn't have much information on local elections or anything like that obviously presidential elections were mainly focused on we touched based on that in AP Government courses but nothing locally uh so I really wanted to take this class to understand the bits and pieces that aren't really looked at as much Veronica boso is one of about 15 students in the class she's directly involved in one of the big races today as she interned and currently volunteers for the reelection campaign for Vin goal boso says reaching out to young voters was a big part of her work and it wasn't easy in college we have a pretty heavy workload that tends to you know cause some issues with free time I know that I'm pretty active on campus I'm involved with around five clubs and I have some jobs on the side so it's definitely difficult to make time even though it could be pretty quick younger people jenzy even Millennials need to stop being so apathetic they they don't need to be uh affiliated with one party or the other but they just really need to get their say out Michelle ryar is from Oldbridge and she's voting their today she's seen how contentious Schoolboard meetings have become and education is one of the issues inspiring her to vote I want to vote in people that actually care for their education uh care for who they are care for their identities and just promote being educated and not being nutty Chapman says students tend to focus on National issues rather than local concerns but there are plenty of things students consider during campaign season I'm just sick of seeing the constant construction the the deforestation of trees the building of luxury apartments everywhere and the subsequent traffic that goes with it I look for a candidate who of course you know has those similar ideas as I do um whatever those may be uh doesn't have to be left doesn't have to be right 2019 was the last year New Jersey voters could choose assembly members but not a governor and the turnout that year was 27% we'll see if New Jersey's voters do better after the dust settles this week at Mammoth University I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News