I’ve been a legal adult for almost two years, and twice in that amount of time, I’ve missed two elections. I haven’t even registered to vote. Once, I made plans to register, but obviously I never went through on them. I know voting is supposed to be our most sacred right as an American, but it still doesn’t bother me that I haven’t even registered.
Last week, four states chose a new governor, but we barely heard about it because candidates are already campaigning for president. I think it all goes back to whether or not we think it’s important to vote in these small elections. In Ithaca, residents voted for new council members. Just because we live up the hill from town hall, doesn’t mean that we aren’t affected by these elections.
It doesn’t bother me that I haven’t voted because I didn’t think that these little elections would affect me that much. I don’t even live in my home state half of the time, so why it does it matter who’s the governor? As if living somewhere for half of the year doesn’t make it my home anymore. Of course I’ll vote in the presidential election, that affects all of us. But in reality, it’s the representative that I should have chosen last year when I didn’t vote that will chose who’s president.
On campus, a ballot was sent out last week, allowing students to vote whether or not they have confidence in our school’s president. I don’t care what you vote, but I think it’s important that you vote something. While the elections I haven’t cast my vote in are in another state, we don’t have the excuse of distance to ignore this vote. We can pretend that the votes that affect us in the real world don’t make a difference in our college bubble, but when the vote’s a little closer to home, we can’t just write it off.
If a few people are abstaining from the vote it isn’t going to change much, but abstaining isn’t really the problem here. It’s the apathy that’s been my problem and I don’t think I’m alone. We think we can’t understand politics or we aren’t sure what the candidates stand for or don’t understand the situation. If it makes you feel any better, the president probably doesn’t understand everything about politics, and the candidates stand for something new every week, and you’re never going to understand the entire situation. So do your best to educate yourself and then go out and vote.
It doesn’t bother me that I haven’t registered to vote yet. I still don’t think which town selectman gets chosen will make a huge deal, but if there’s a vote that we can use to make a difference then why not voice our opinions.
