By Victor Rosales

This year’s 2016 Presidential election has produced the most-watched debate in history. That made us curious as to who actually watched so we recently decided to ask around at a house party in Long Beach, CA and talked to three non-voters about the debate. “I watched 3-5 minutes of it” said Isaak Garcia, 35, of South Gate, CA. The host of the party, Tony Pineda, 35, of Long Beach said “I did not watch the debate, but I saw highlights.” Just when we thought nobody at the party watched the debate we met Nick Squires, 35, who said, “Yes, I did watch the debate.” When asked for his thoughts Squires said, “I had high expectations and was disappointed.”

Despite the high ratings its unclear if this election will produce history making voter turnout. The United States struggles when it comes to people showing up to the polls and is ranked much lower when compared to other nations. According to Pew research, the US was ranked at 53.6 percent in 2012 for people of voting age. The top country Belgium was at 87.4 percent, were voting is mandatory unlike the United States.

When we asked all three guest at the party if they planned to vote, we did not get a single yes. “I have not decided on a candidate, but it doesn’t matter either way because I’m not planning to vote,” said Squires. When we asked Pineda, he said, “I’m not registered to vote.” From what we learned, a lot has to do with the fact that many feel there vote won’t matter in a big blue state like California, where Democratic candidates have won every time since 1988. “States like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida are going to decide our future, good luck to them,” says Pineda.