Over the years, I have to admit I have not been the most politically informed. I usually have known just enough to get through short, mostly one sided conversations with my friends and parents. For me, I never really felt the need to be informed because I was not old enough to vote so even if I was informed, I could not really do anything about it so why bother. Before anyone freaks out, yes I understand how dumb and problematic this way of thinking is. There is something worse than little ol' under aged me not being informed though, and that is people who are 18 and older being uninformed. My high school American Government teacher use to tell us that the only people who do not vote are the uneducated, which I agree with but also the lazy find a lot of excuses not to vote. Another major issue that I see is everyone has this bullsh*t complex, that they are correct in everything and can never be wrong. Which means they “educate” themselves on only what they like to hear and then are ignorant to change or understand anyone else’s logic. Now, I am not here to tell you who to vote for, that is your job to decide, but I am here to tell you why you need to vote and what you need to do to be an educated voter.
First, the day you turn 18 you need to register to vote. This link will take you through registering and making sure you are registered in case you don’t know. Even if there is no presidential election coming up, your state will have smaller elections throughout the year so make sure to be registered. Now, if you are unsure of what party you identify with, you should start off registering unaffiliated. There is a catch though—some states have closed primaries where you have to be registered for a party in order to vote. There's is a map of the states and what kind of primary they have and what party you have to be to vote in it. This does not mean you have to be affiliated when you first register though, you can change your affiliation before a closed primary if you need in order to vote. Make sure to look up your state’s guidelines on how far in advanced you need to change your affiliation in order to vote in a closed primary.
Second, you need to actually get informed on the candidates and issues. This means you have to do a little research: listening to your parents, the news and TV ads are not viable ways of being educated. It is so easy to be blinded by all the negative things the media is saying about the election that you forget to even learn about the issues. Here are links to the republican and democratic candidates websites: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions and https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/. These websites outline what they believe are major issues and what their game plans are about. While you read up, just remember the president will more than likely fail to complete every goal they have outlined because of the way our political system is set up.
During Obama’s presidency, everyone believes he is awful and didn’t keep up with any of the promises he made. But during his presidency, republican house and senate members have constantly blocked his bills from being passed and have tried to repeal Obamacare multiple times. I am not saying that republicans are bad and they are the reason all the bad in our country because if you flip it, I would assume democrats would do the same with a republican president. I am just saying you cannot expect that your desired candidate will get everything they wanted done. It is just not realistic.
The most important thing, which I cannot stress enough, is you have to get out and vote. You cannot sit and complain about the country you live in without being a proactive member. Research where the polls near you are and how long their open. Make sure you are registered correctly so you can fully participate. Even if you hate all the presidential nominees, there is more than just that to vote for on Election Day. This website lets you see where the polls are in your state and who is running so check it out and get informed: http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/. Most importantly, being lazy is not an excuse for not voting!!! An absentee vote is a mail in ballot in case you are unable to be at the polls. This means no matter what, you need to figure it out and get out there. The only person that can take your voice away is you.
