It’s Election Day. In the coming hours the final votes will be cast, and every local, state and gubernatorial seat will be decided.

Iowa State is a diverse place, and students cast votes all over the spectrum. However, there’s a lot for new voters to absorb, and it can be hard to determine what issues matter most.

Students from multiple Iowa State political groups offered their opinions about what issues voters should think about when they go through the ballot, and decided economics, healthcare and climate change are their top three issues.

Healthcare

Healthcare has been one of the top issues in the midterm elections. Fred Hubbell, the Democratic candidate for governor, criticized Gov. Kim Reynolds for her Medicaid policies, which gives control of Medicaid to private companies.

Medicaid privatization began under former Gov. Terry Branstad. Data released by the Medicaid director indicated that Medicaid patients saw an initial drop in payment costs, but saw those rates nearly tripled in 2018.

Candidates like Hubbell want to end the privatization of Medicaid and return control to the state. J.D. Scholten, the Democratic challenger for Rep. Steve King’s congressional seat, wants to help Iowa and the rest of America move towards a universal healthcare system, or medicare for all.

“Medicare for all is dangerous,” said Rajen Modi, freshman in business finance and member of Iowa State College Republicans. “It decreases the quality of care because doctors won’t make as much or be as skilled, and there would be less doctors, too.”

He said the U.S. can’t adopt a universal healthcare program because of its size, and because our economic regulation strategies differ too greatly from countries that have universal healthcare, like Denmark, the UK and Canada.

“The solution is to deregulate the health insurance companies,” Modi said. “If you deregulate the healthcare industry it will lead to more healthcare providers at lower costs.”

However, other students don’t share this view. Taylor Blair, junior in industrial design and president of Iowa State College Democrats, believes the U.S. should adopt a universal healthcare system.

“The idea we can let these businesses do what they want and they’ll just be nice is absurd,” Blair said. “They’re going to try to make money, that’s just how businesses work. Sometimes we need regulations.”

Blair added that there is a moral argument for implementing universal health care as well.

“We’re the wealthiest country in the world, we can afford to take care of our people,” Blair said. “We saw what happened when we deregulated insurance companies, they denied people with pre-existing conditions.”

Climate Change

Reynold’s supported the expansion of E15 gasoline, calling it a “cleaner burning, lower cost fuel option” for Iowans. Hubbell wants to continue the expansion, and extend it to the fields of solar and wind energy.

Hubbell has been critical of research and development tax credits Reynolds’s administration gives to corporations. According to the Des Moines Register, this cost $42 million in taxpayer dollars. Hubbell wants to take that money and use it to fund higher education and renewable energy.

Modi emphasized that Republicans like Reynolds want to find solutions to climate change too, but aren’t as convinced by the data as Democrats are.

“Both sides agree climate change is an issue,” Modi said. “Republicans absolutely believe it’s a problem and want it fixed, but we can’t force people into poverty to address climate change.”

Modi believes that regulations the left calls for on energy companies, carbon and fossil fuel emissions would wreck the economy and drastically affect the lives of Americans.

“We shouldn’t take drastic measures over something we haven’t fully researched,” Modi said. “We know that human activity is having an affect on the earth, but we don’t know the full extent of that yet.”

Blair disagrees, and referred to the International Panel on Climate Change report that indicated the world could see dangerous levels of flooding and temperature increases by 2040 if carbon emissions aren’t greatly reduced.

“Climate change is the biggest issue we’re facing and it doesn’t get talked about enough,” Blair said. “A lot of people are hesitant to act on climate change because of how regulations affect the economy, but climate change is going to affect the economy. What’s it going to do to the economy when Miami is underwater?”

Economics

Reynolds signed Iowa’s largest tax cut in 2018. The bill was criticized for the proportions of money saved by wealthy people and corporations. Middle class Iowans are predicted to save $100 to $300 and millionaires are predicted to save $25,000 or more. Lower income Iowans may save as little as $18, the Des Moines Register reported.

Hubbell said he wants to keep taxes low for middle class Iowans and raise them on corporations and the wealthy. He said he wants to redistribute this money to public education institutions to drive down tuition costs, although this might be impossible.

However, Reynolds has boasted the Iowa economy has the lowest unemployment rate in history. Nolan Wright, a senior in philosophy and economics and president of Iowa State Young Democratic Socialists, said this isn’t a good indicator for how workers are doing.

“Something we’ve learned is that low unemployment doesn’t secure high wages,” Wright said. “Reynolds points out that we have record low unemployment, but some people have to work multiple jobs just to get by.”

A report released by United Way said nearly 40 percent of Iowa households struggle to afford basic needs. Wright thinks other measures should be taken for Iowans, such as increasing the minimum wage.

“Raising the minimum wage in Iowa could mean huge changes in the short term, and I’d like to see that,” Wright said. “But we need to go way past that first step. Most Democrats have good short term policies, but we need to focus on the long term.”

To Wright, there is a paradox that comes along with voting. None of the candidates are radical to bring about the drastic changes he would like to see, but there are candidates that are preferable to others. Wright agree very little with a candidate’s platform, but he’ll vote for them to get small, incremental changes.

Modi said he believes tax rates are the most important issue in this election.

“Kim Reynolds wants to keep taxes low and affordable for the middle class and corporations,” Modi said. “It lets people do what they want with their money, and we shouldn’t have somebody else deciding for people how their hard earned money is spent.”

He particularly stressed the importance of having low taxes for corporations.

“It’s similar to trickle down economics,” Modi said. “A criticism of trickle down economics is that corporations don’t spend the saved money on development and they just put it in the bank, but that’s actually a good thing. When banks have more expendable cash, they can give out more loans to more people at better prices.”