Fairfax proved a pivotol county in the tight Governor's election. Over 800 students, faculty, staff, and Fairfax residents stopped by University Hall to cast their ballots. Democratic Terry McAuliffe won the election with 47.74% of the vote, defeating Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis. 303,465 votes were cast in Fairfax, with 67,000 votes more for McAuliffe than Cuccinelli: almost exactly what the Democrat needed to win.

The Virginia Governor’s race is heating up between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli. In order to build awareness about the other options in the election, third party candidate Robert Sarvis visited Mason, where he visited the Honors 131 class of Mason’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor Steven Pearlstein and answered questions from students and guests.

In 2008, political analysts found that, while the youth vote—those under 30--broke overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, it did not singularly tip the election in his favor. Exit polls from the 2012 election show Obama once again won the youth vote, this time by 67 percent nationally and 61 percent in swing states. Not only was the breadth of the youth vote integral to this election, but the depth, too, played an important factor. Exit poll data suggests that one in five voters on Tuesday was under the age of 30, with half of eligible voters ages 18 through 29 casting a ballot.

The election is finally upon us and we are adjusting schedules to ensure we get to the polls on time. Because the candidates have varying stances on very important issues, Americans want to make sure every vote counts. But, sitting in my friends’ breakfast nook, looking at my absentee ballot, I realize that there is only the illusion of choice: we live in a system where only the two main parties ever vie for positions of political power.