‘I have been less than impressed with pretty much all politicians as of late.’

Noah Schaller is a military veteran and fourth-year architecture student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who believes in the voting system. Whether he is in his studio working on projects or back home in La Crosse taking care of his family, Schaller plans to exercise his right to vote.

Llani Froeber: Do you plan on voting in the upcoming election on Nov. 3? Why or why not?

Noah Schaller: Yes, I’m ex-military, and I feel that it’s important to participate in the systems we have in place. I think it’s fair to have opinions and potentially talk about those things, but it’s a crucial feature that we participate in those systems at a bare minimum.

Llani Froeber: Where do you plan to vote for this coming election? Why?

Noah Schaller: It depends because I have a lot of family in La Crosse, and I have family that have medical issues, so I oftentimes go back and forth on the train. It really will just depend on where I end up. So, if I’m here, I’ll vote here. If I’m there, I’ll vote there.

Llani Froeber: Is there a certain candidate that you are leaning towards, or is there one that you are leaning against?

Noah Schaller: Not really. I have been less than impressed with pretty much all politicians as of late. If you keep tabs on them, both sides will say one thing, and then, depending on the media, they’ll say something else. I understand it’s a game that they all play, but it’s noticeable from both sides. It will really depend as these weeks start to wind down on some of these bigger-button issues, because the bigger ones do kind of filter down to some of the others, unfortunately.

Llani Froeber: Are there any pressing issues that will be on the front of your mind when voting this year?

Noah Schaller: Probably the mainstream ones that you see. Things like artificial intelligence are a big one; I’ve got family who are involved with its usage, doing some really great stuff with cancer research, especially. I have cousins who do that, so it is really helpful; and if you understand large language models, they do a lot of very interesting, helpful tasking with crunching data. I’m in architecture, so its usage tends to be not as impactful, and then we all see the sort of ecological impacts too. That’s probably the biggest one on my mind, that I’ve been keeping tabs on. There’s a lot of economic fallout that could happen, and there are a lot of people who could lose jobs.