Why+Should+I+Vote?

English 112 Johnston 1 Op-ed writing 02-06-2012 Why Should I Vote?

A growing amount of people in the US are not taking advantage of their right to vote. In the last 30 years the percentage of voters who turned out to vote is between 54% and 71%. Age, race, location, sex and what is up for vote all have a significant factor in how many people will vote. If the ballot is about something that a person thinks will affect them directly that person is more likely to vote. If it is something that a person doesn’t care about or they think it won’t affect them they will not be very motivated to vote.

One of the largest problems with our society today is that people believe that their say will not count. This is in part because way too often corruption and greed get in the way of the people that we elect to run our society. It is rampant from local government where our representatives may cast their vote for a project in order to be invited to something as simple as a fishing trip all the way to federal government, where lobbyists can offer vacations or campaign contributions worth several thousand dollars.

Every issue that comes up for vote whether it is a local, state or federal will in some way have an effect on our lives. Take for example school funding. This is an area that is overlooked by most people. It does not matter if you have children or not, everyone has to help pay for this. You might not think that it is a big deal but on a non-homestead property the percentage of your taxes that go to school funding may be as high as 80% of what you pay.

Another thing that might make people think their vote may not count is because it doesn’t always. There have been four presidents voted into office by electoral vote. These people did not win the popular vote, the votes cast by you and I. These presidents were John Quincy Adams, 1824; Rutheford B. Hayes, 1876; Benjamin Harrison, 1888; and George W. Bush, 2000. This flaw in our system can surely make a person think about whether or not they should take the time to vote.

It seems that these days there are a lot of elections that are decided by a very narrow margin. Two Years ago The House of Representatives was decided by only a few votes (15 unofficially). Either of the top candidates ( Jason Allen, loser and Dan Benishek, winner) would have been great for the job. This particular election really hit home for me on how important it is to vote. I was a campaign participant in this election. I had my mind made up on who I wanted and why. That was before I became a political pawn. My family and I gave up a few hours of our time to represent our candidate in a parade, as part of this we were all wearing campaign shirts. At the end of the parade I was appalled when we were requested to give the shirts back! We reluctantly gave them back and parted ways. I told a lot of local people about this and persuaded them to consider changing their vote as I was going to. I was unaware at the time that this could have such a large impact on that election. Please remember to vote for the issues and not for a personal agenda as I did.

There have been a lot of complaints in the last few years about how the ballots are worded. It seems that on a lot of the ballots no means yes and yes means no. It is the responsibility of the voter to know exactly what is up for vote. There is always an abundance of information about any topic available to the public. Local meetings such as township, city or county board meetings are a great place to ask questions or even just listen to what these people have to say. These people, whether they are elected officials or just people in the crowd, know that these decisions will have an impact on the lives of everyone in the community and are always willing to give their opinion of the issues up for election.

Our constitution and bill of rights (the 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 24th and 26th) give us the opportunity to have a say in how our government is run. It is not only our right but our responsibility to vote. If we the people do not stand up and speak for ourselves by voting there may come a time when the few who do vote may try to take away this right. Our government has already gotten to be so large that we are not a true democracy. We are only able to vote on a limited amount of issues, the rest of them are voted on by the people that we have elected or that have been appointed by those that we have elected. We have to be very careful and always mindful of the fact that without us exercising our rights, someone else is going to run the whole show.

My vote may be just one vote but, it is mine and I know that if I do not exercise that right someday I may not have it. Our constitution was written the way it is for a reason. That reason is to ensure the way of life that we all take for granted. Without our constant participation this way of life could come to an end. I for one have come to enjoy the freedoms that accompany this one simple right. Next time you don’t feel like voting just remember all of your rights and freedoms depend on it.