Laura Ainsfield, 23,  works as a server at Red Rock Canyon Grill in downtown Silver Spring and lives in Takoma Park. Taking a smoking break on a bench outside the restaurant, Ainsfield said that her mom was encouraging her to vote Nov. 7.

“My mom's a schoolteacher, and my family's very liberal. So she's like, ‘Go make sure you go vote for all the Democrats you can, because we need more Democrats in office.’ So I was going to do that, but I also feel bad because of not knowing the background of things like that.”

Ainsfield, a Democrat, said she hadn’t been paying much attention to the elections this year and doesn't know who is running for governor or senator.

“I watch ‘John Stewart’ and ‘The Colbert Report,’ so I know some of them by face, but I really don’t pay attention,” she said.

At the same time, she says that she knows what’s important to her and that her party usually supports those issues. “I know what I believe in, like I’m for gay marriages and stem cell research and I’m pro-choice and all that good stuff,” she said.

Ainsfield considers herself new to the elections process.

“Last presidential election was the first time I was able to vote anyway, so I’m really not familiar with it, so I’m still learning,” she said. “I’m sure once I get older, like I’ll know more of the topics, about like taxes. Right now I still live with my mom, so it’s not really a big concern to me right now.”

--Melissa Pachikara

Her own words... LAURA AINSFIELD discusses her ambivalence. (18 seconds, RealPlayer file)

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