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If you don’t know that Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 3, I am slightly jealous of you. You’ve probably missed out on some of the craziness, negativity, and frustration that has been the 2020 campaign season.
It’ll all be over soon, right?
Other than perhaps the Super Bowl, I can’t think of an event still in existence, or with its peak effect, that creates as much national attention as the day when we learn who the president will be over the next four-year term.
Voting = power and a voice
Unlike the Super Bowl, we have a say in the results of Election Day.Our votes are powerful tools that can change lives.
Numbers from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project show that since 1972, after the voting age was lowered to 18, voter turnout has never hit as high as 60 percent.
The high was 2008 (Obama vs. McCain) at 57.1 percent, and that was the only time turnout was above 56 percent. The low was in 1996 (Clinton vs. Dole vs. Perot) at 49 percent.
All this power in voting, and more than 40-45 percent of the voting age public doesn’t use it.
That’s a lot of voices not being heard.
If we want to look at an average election as a 55 percent to 45 percent margin of victory, that means about 30 percent of the voting public decides a winner (Electoral College notwithstanding, which is another topic for another time).
Are we happy with this?
In the midst of all the campaigning, positive and negative, is enough attention being paid to making sure everyone can, will, and does vote?
If everyone, truly everyone who could vote, did vote, would we accept the results of our elections more? Do those results truly represent the will and voice of the people?
‘My vote doesn’t matter!’
We’ll take a look at one of the biggest excuses why people don’t vote.
If you don’t know a lot about the candidates or the issues, or if you tend to vote only for people that lose, you might feel this way.
As much as I would love to listen to all of you readers out there at the moment that you’re reading this, I can only guess why you think your vote doesn’t count.
Maybe you live in an area the opposite color of your political beliefs and feel outnumbered.
Maybe you’re not really connected with current events or politics and don’t feel what goes on in either the national or state capitals matters to you.
Maybe you’re drained from observing “politics” during your life and feel your life is better than that.
Maybe you don’t feel your leaders are really listening and representing you.
[Here’s a ponderable thought that I don’t have the answer to: Is a leader obligated to consider the people in his or her constituency that didn’t vote for her or him?]
Whether it’s a national, state, or local election, you are part of that designated area.
You matter and you have a voice.
If you’re eligible to vote, you owe it to yourself to do so.
You toil, you work, you suffer, you pay taxes, and a lot of people went through a lot of trouble to make sure everyone who should have the right to vote, has it.
Please vote
I’m probably breaking a writing rule by repeating my headline in a subhead, but I’m going to do it anyway.
If you haven’t yet, or haven’t made the necessary arrangements yet, please vote.
This is your chance to be heard.
This is your chance to influence the decisions our public servants are making.
This is your chance to make the country better.
This is your chance to matter.
This is your chance to be an American.