I know it is probably too late to post this, but its been on my mind lately, and nobody’s going to read this anyway, so why not?

A lot of younger people in this day and age have decided that voting is pointless. With the way the system works (and I won’t get into the details here, as I don’t understand exactly myself), one can vote one way and have your vote counted differently because the majority of people living in your area vote differently. In essence, an option that has the majority rule can still lose if this rule loses the majority of counties in which votes are segmented.

So, especially since you are only one tally mark in a ballot of hundreds upon hundreds of thousands, what is the point, right? Wrong. This ideology is flat out stupid, and I won’t sugar coat it by stating otherwise. If the majority of people believe one way, yet think they are not individually in power to change things, then the minority option can easily win simply because that majority decided it futile to voice their opinion. Regarding Presidential elections, a delegate can win without representing their country simply because their country thought it was pointless to vote on the individual scale.

Yes, I can easily see that one person’s vote will be meaningless. It’s unheard of for a matter regarding thousands of people will be decided over one vote. But that isn’t the point. I’m often told that it is a privilege to be able to vote. But it’s more than that. Being a white male, voting is a privilege I would be given in any time and place. But think about all of the people that fought to have their voice heard. Voting still isn’t a universal right. People around the world fight for this privilege, so to pretend it is pointless is to belittle the blood, sweat, and tears of those that have toiled to provide it.

Women and people of color did not work as hard as they did in the past simply to have future generations shrug off the right to vote. If voting wasn’t important, our education system wouldn’t devote so much time in history class to describe how it works and who fought to amend the Constitution to extend these rights. Another interesting thing that happened because people wanted to have their voices heard was the Revolutionary War.

It’s easy to say that voting in the Presidential elections comes between choosing the lesser of two evils. I won’t debate that in recent decades, this has been the case. But everybody has opinions, and not voicing yours is making those of the people around you carry more weight. We are to be held accountable, as a privileged society to make changes, little by little, to improve things.

If the population of voters decreases, it will only make it easier and easier for worse, more corrupt people to hold positions of power. It is a downward spiral that every person neglecting to vote is, essentially, enabling. Nobody can reasonably expect things to improve when they stand indifferent to changes that must be made. Voting isn’t a privilege. It’s a responsibility.