On Election Day, Sacramento State athletes made sure to exercise their right to vote and advocated for others to do the same.

Hornet Athletics started the conversation of the importance of voting in the summer when its student-athletes and faculty announced a voting initiative in correspondence to Sac State’s “Buzz the Ballot.”

The goal of the Hornet Athletics voting initiative is to “raise awareness on the importance of exploring your right to vote to those across campus and to members of the community, especially first-time voters.” 

RELATED: Sac State student-athletes will take the day off to vote this election

“Since the summer, the election has been pretty much a topic of conversation at a lot of our meetings,” said Christian Terrell, Sac State senior guard for the men’s basketball team. “Not so much trying to persuade us which way to vote but just encouraging us that voting does matter.”

Before the polls closed, Sacramento State athletes took time off from practice to express the importance of voting to those who have yet to cast their ballots.

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“I’m advocating for others to vote just by using social media platforms that I have,” Terrell said. “I’m from Sacramento so I know a lot of people from the area follow me and I’m pretty sure other people from around the state or even across the country follow me.”

The school has also encouraged voting by having Sac State Athletics post Hornet athletes with their voting stickers via social media.

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Softball Votes 🇺🇸 #HornetsVote #StingersUp pic.twitter.com/96bXbfqS65

— Hornet Athletics (@hornetsports) November 3, 2020

“As Sac State Athletics, I think just us sharing that we’re out voting is shining a light on it,” said Sac State senior volleyball player Cianna Andrews. “It’s not really us telling other people to go out and vote, but just putting it out there that we’re doing it.”

Andrews said that Sac State athletes wanted to make sure they were registered to vote as they have a huge platform for people to look to.

“I believe my team is 100% registered to vote and I do think we all voted,” Terrell said.  

Noticing the increasing importance of exercising her right to vote, Andrews said this year was the first time she has voted in a presidential election.

“People always talk about change and wanting change, and voting is the main way we can change,” Andrews said.

Andrews cast her ballot early by mail, which has become an increasingly popular method of voting during the pandemic.

The Early Elections Project says 12,090,534 people in California voted early by casting their mail-in ballots. A total of 65,244,687 people throughout the country mailed their ballots. 

Senior Sac State track and field and cross country runner Rachel Victor says this is her first time voting in a presidential election as well.

Victor says voting makes her feel great because it is a way for her to make her community a better place.

“Just filling out the ballot voting on all the propositions, I didn’t go blindly into it, I definitely educated myself on each one of the propositions,” Victor said.

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Terrell said his family got together and discussed their opinions on the different ballot initiatives.

“We didn’t tell each other what we were voting for but we all sat around the table and voted,” Terrell said.

With their votes cast, Sac State athletes said they are unsure of the future at hand.

“I’m just hoping for change and I really hope that people made the right decision and went out to vote and we see some drastic changes,” Terrell said.