*Disclaimer*
Generally, when I write I generally try to stay away from polemical text or personal attacks. I believe in fostering discussion rather than argumentation and as such my articles are usually fairly lengthy and not without a fair degree of needlessly fancy prose. This is not going to be one of those articles.
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Recently, I, like many Americans, saw a video by the organization “Save the Day” which featured dozens of celebrities making an impassioned call for people to get out and vote. As cheesy as it may seem, this video legitimately inspired me to deal with the process of registering to vote from France, where I am currently attending college. Then I read an article entitled “Why I Will Not Be Voting This Year” by Samantha Osborn. (This is where that disclaimer from earlier comes in). Ms. Osborn, I don’t know you, and while I am sure you are a nice person, your article is hopelessly ignorant, dramatically superficial, and betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about how democracy works.
Sadly, Ms. Osborn’s view is shared by a growing number of Americans, mostly young voters, who see politics as toxic. Or, as Ms. Osborn puts it, she isn’t interested in politics “mostly because she has morals and common sense.” This is incredibly disheartening and I’m honestly pretty damn annoyed with it. So, without further ado, here are seven reasons why you need to get out and vote
1. Democracy doesn’t fucking work if you don’t vote.
This is fundamental. The bedrock of democratic government is that people, informed or otherwise, make their way to polling stations around the country in order to vote for our governmental representatives. The lower voter turnout drops in nations with non-compulsory voting, the more the governance of a country suffers. This is invariable throughout the history of democracy; it’s not simply my opinion, it is a fact.
2. It may have escaped your notice, but there are more than two candidates on the ballot.
In the United States, the general election is termed so because it is an election for all levels of government. When you go to the polling place you don’t open up an envelope that says “TRUMP [ ] HILLARY [ ]” and then check one and walk away. A ballot book is multiple pages long, with everything from the presidential election, to congress races, to state house and senate races, to the committee members that will make the decision about whether your kid years can take AP US History when they get to high school. Don’t like Hillary or Trump? Leave that section of the ballot blank! That is something you are allowed to do. You don’t get to make the excuse that you’re not inspired by the candidate at the top of the ticket when there are so many other races that need to be voted in.
3. Low voter turnout means that more crazy-ass weirdos get elected.
In 2012, Ted Cruz won his primary run-off election with just over 630,000 votes, on the back of an 8.4% turnout. In the general election, the winner of the republican primary was always going to win. In short, 630,000 Texans elected a bipedal version of a sea slug to represent more than 27 million people. And this is just one example; there are dozens of politicians around the country on both sides of the aisle who were elected by absolutely unconscionable low numbers of voters.
4. Low voter turnout means that more crazy-ass propositions get passed.
18 States allow voters to amend the state constitution by popular vote, 25 allow referendums to repeal acts of the legislature, another 25 allow legislation to be voted on by popular vote, and all states allow some other form of popular initiation of legislative functions. When you stay away from the polls, the most extreme parts of the electorate can pass the craziest provisions without any opposition. Look at traditionally liberal California passing Prop 8, which banned gay marriage on a 36.6% turnout for the measure. Look at North Carolina passing Amendment One to the state constitution on a similar 34.7% turnout. These are not isolated incidents. Low turnout makes the electorate more ideological, is incredibly unrepresentative of the nation as a whole, and therefore the laws they engender are the same.
5. People have literally died for our right to vote.
No matter who you are, at some point in history someone laid down their life so that we could get up off of our asses and vote for our government. No matter if it was 200+ years ago for a white guy like me, not even 100 for the women of this nation, or only 51 years ago for millions of people of color, people have died so that we would have the right to vote; we honor their sacrifice by going out and making our voices heard. This may sound like a tired cliché, but it’s fucking true and every time we stay home from the polls, we dishonor their sacrifice.
6. People are STILL dying for our right to vote.
This point is even more salient. We aren’t merely honoring the sacrifice of those long since passed. We’re honoring Syrian freedom fighters being gassed by their government; we’re honoring students in Tiananmen Square being gunned down; we’re honoring soldiers risking their lives everyday so that we can continue to live in a democracy where we have the right to choose who will make the most important choices of the next century.
7. Unless you have Scrooge McDuck amounts of money, voting is still the best way to influence policy that you care about.
Sign all the Change.org petitions you want (I know I do), but unless you change the people who are hearing your message then you’re going to get about as far towards your goal of positive change as I am towards mine of passing my Arabic class (hint: not far). And yes, I am well aware that money has a corrosive influence on politics, I’ve even read the entirety of the Supreme Courts’ decision in Citizens United v. FEC (Really don’t recommend it, SCOTUS decisions are no fun to read),but that doesn’t negate the fact that changing the people in the room can have a profound impact on policy.
So there you are, seven reasons why we should all get out and vote this November. No matter what your views, your feelings, your excitement about a candidate, it is your civic responsibility to get out and vote.
**Registration Information**
If you need helping figuring out how to register to vote I highly, highly recommend Hank Green’s “How to Vote in Every State"
I would also recommend watching these:
Ten Terrible Reason to not Vote
