In recent months with the presidential candidate nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I have heard a significant number of people who simply don’t want to vote. For many people around my age, this is the first year that we legally can vote. I understand why people don’t particularly want to participate in this controversial election. I don’t even truly like either candidate.

It has come to the point where a lot of people are just weighing out which candidate they dislike more. It is sad that this is what the election has come to, however by not voting at all, you’re only going to help the greater of the two evils win. The right to vote is something that was fought for, and not to be taken for granted.

Not every country is so lucky to have the right to vote. I am fortunate to be able to live in a nation where I am granted freedoms and have my civil rights as a human being, protected. In other countries bloodline may determine a president, or certain positions of power. Monarchies, dictatorships, and other forms of government can’t provide the same equality that ours does. It is easy to neglect the fact that speaking up about your opinion was once in america a life-risking process for women or minorities, which still continues in other countries today.

Even more so as a woman, this is only the 96th year that our gender is permitted to vote. The 19th amendment in 1920 was a major step forward in gender inequality. I will be voting for all of those women who once wanted their opinion to matter, and were not granted this right.

Over the course of time, suffrage becomes more of a history fact and less individual right. The ease of voting makes us forget how it once was difficult and restricted. If you are planning on sitting out this election, vote to speak up and be another reason for the candidates to hopefully stick to their promises made in the presidential race. Vote for your ancestors who were prohibited from casting a ballot at eighteen years old. Vote because you are an American Citizen and vote because you can.