Why voting matters
November 2, 2016
We the people run this country. The entire American government is built upon the theory of a Republic, which is a representative democracy. We the people give power to the government to make decisions for us. We are not just voters that decide the government, we are the ones who control the government. We are large and in charge.
When it comes to Nov 8, it is imperative that every eligible person votes. When voting in elections, you are allowing your voice to be heard. By voting, you are telling the government, “this is what I want and this is what I believe in.”
When we vote, we are allowing our voice to be heard through the megaphone of someone in the political sphere. Since the American population is too big, we use representatives to represent what we believe in. Some people may not want to vote because they dislike the candidates, but not voting is silencing your voice.
When you do not vote, you do not have the right to complain about the turnout. Just as if you were asked what you wanted for dinner, pizza or salad, and you said you do not care, you have no right to complain about the option chosen. The only difference is the person you chose not to vote for, will decide what happens to your country, your life, your taxes, your community.
Even if you do not want to vote for the president because you think it will not impact you directly, there are local elections on the ballot.
Senators, members of the House, people that represent you throughout the nation. Still, people see others voting and see the millions of people already voting. This causes a lot of voters to not vote because they think their vote “does not matter” or “will not make a difference” but it does matter and makes a huge difference.
Not in the cliché way of “if everyone thought this way…” but in a much more actual sense of democracy. Exercising our ability to vote is a privilege given to us that we have not always had.
Women were not able to vote until 1920, less than 100 years ago. Many African-Americans were unable to vote until 1965, 51 years ago, and we still deny the right to vote to many Americans. Felons are unable to vote which disenfranchises about 6 million American citizens, silencing their voice.
Of the 318 million American voices, only 218,959,000 are eligible to vote, within that number, only 146,311,000 are registered to vote.
As we can see, only about a third of Americans voices are heard, make yours one of them.
