Will young voters turn out this election?

ORLANDO, Fla. – Young voters have been the lowest group to turn out for elections since the 1960s, with dropping turnout rates almost every year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Since 1964, voters between 18 and 24 years old have dropped from a 50.9 percent engagement to 38 percent in 2012, the U.S. Census found.

Florida’s 2016 primary election in August was no different.

The Orange County precinct with the lowest voter turnout during the primary was on the University of Central Florida’s campus.

Precinct 538, at UCF’s CFE Arena is the polling location for students who live on campus.

[MORE: News 6 2016 election guide]

Just 48 ballots were cast in the primary at the UCF polling station, a little more than 4 percent of the registered voters at the UCF polling precinct, according to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office.

However, during the March presidential primary UCF’s on-campus polling station brought in the highest voter turnout in Orange County.

The difference between the Florida primary and the presidential primary? Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Of the 506 ballots cast during the presidential primary 87 percent were for Sanders, reported USA Today.

News 6 stopped by UCF’s main campus to talk to students, 12 days before the 2016 general election, and find out if they will be voting this year, Bernie or not.

Briana Golding, a nursing major, said women’s health and the economy are a few of the issues driving her vote on Nov. 8.

“I’m not going to name any names, but some candidates aren’t exactly friendly towards women or friendly towards people with disabilities,” Golding said.

For Nicole Magnelli, an undecided first time voter, where the candidates come down on student loan debt and foreign policy could sway her decision on Election Day.

Several students brought up discrimination as the reason behind their pick for president.

“I have no respect for Trump because he has discriminated against women and I have five sisters,” he said. “And I have no trust in Hillary for all the things that she has said and has been background checked and have been proven to have lied.”

Skyen Augustus, a UCF junior, said while he thought both Republican and Democratic candidates are very influential people he picked Clinton.

“[Hillary] has a lot of this country’s best interests at heart, where as Donald Trump actually discriminated against people of different genders,” said Augustus. “That was really disturbing to me.”

“There’s some really outrageous things being said on both ends,” said Simone de los Angeles, a UCF senior. “For example Trump with the wall.”

Although de los Angeles said she is not Hispanic, the issue of immigration was important in her decision-making.

Most of the students New 6 spoke to had heard of at least two of the four Florida constitutional amendments on the ballot: medical marijuana and the solar power amendments.

“Medical marijuana, it’s been proven to help children with seizure related disabilities,” Golding said. "Would you rather your kid on 15 pills or two drops of medical marijuana oil and help them?”

“I live in Florida its embarrassing that [New] Jersey uses more solar energy than the Sunshine State does,” she said about Amendment 1. “It’s super important.”

Golding said she didn’t think her peers were as informed on the amendments.

“I don’t feel that on solar power or medical marijuana that [students] are informed enough,” she said. “It’s more so that they are getting the majority of their information from their parents or social media … Whatever is shared is definitely biased to the sharers opinions.”

Caleb Spencer, a senior political science major, said he opposed all the constitutional amendments when he voted early.

 “As a general rule of thumb, I just vote against them,” Spencer said. “That needs to go through legislation, our elected representatives not through a ballot initiative, such as these constitutional amendments. “

Taking better care of the planet was behind Nick Schulte’s decision on the solar amendment and he said medical marijuana could be a great help to people in Florida.

“I believe medical marijuana is very helpful and in some other states it has been legalized medicinal and has been proven to be a great asset to the state and to the people who need it,” Schulte said.

All the UCF students News 6 spoke with said they would encourage their friends to get out and vote, no matter their political preference.

“It’s an amazing right that we have in this country,” Magnelli said.

De los Angele said she knows Florida is an important state this election cycle.

“It’s really important. Florida is the seesaw state,” she said. “Every vote counts.”

Since early voting started on Monday, the UCF polling precinct already beat primary turnout with 47 early ballots and 11 vote-by-mail ballots cast by Wednesday. There are 2,078 people registered to vote at the on campus location in the general election, according to Orange County voter registration records.

Seventeen percent of the 63,000 members of the student body lives on campus, more than 10,000 students, according to UCF.

Election Day is Nov. 8.