Today is Election Day in the United States. I usually don’t follow or discuss politics very much, but I wanted to share a few thoughts on this important day. I’m not going to get into which candidates I support; I just had some observations that I wanted to share about the election and voting in general. I’m going to do this in the form of a Q & A, because I think it will be easier to follow that way.
Q: Do you think everyone should vote?
A: Yes, I do. I used to have a different view on this. I used to say that it is everyone’s right to choose whether they vote or not. I argued that if you don’t think any of the candidates are good, then you shouldn’t have to vote, and that you shouldn’t be given a hard time about it. While I still believe these things, I also think that everyone should vote. As I’ve gotten older and learned how many people in the world don’t get to vote on who should lead their government, I’ve come to realize how fortunate we are that we have this right in the United States. If you don’t like any of the candidates, I still think you should vote for the one that most closely shares your views.
Q: Do you ever feel like your vote doesn’t matter?
A: I used to. There have been times that I didn’t vote (mainly in local elections), and the excuse I used to ease my mind was that my one vote wouldn’t have made a difference. However, I came to realize that if thousands or even millions of other people feel the same way and none of them vote, then that does make a huge difference. I now vote with the confidence that my vote matters just as much as anyone else’s.
Q: Isn’t there a really long wait in line to vote in some elections?
A: Yes. I don’t have any answers as to how the process could be improved, but it seems to me that something could be done speed up the voting process. Even in some of our more hotly contested local elections, I’ve heard of people having to wait in line for 2 hours to vote. Due to work, family, or other responsibilities, there are some citizens who legitimately don’t have that much time to wait. It would be a shame if someone in this situation didn’t get to vote because the wait was too long.
Q: Are you going to encourage us to go vote?
A: Yes! I’d like to encourage every U.S. citizen to vote today if you haven’t already done so via absentee or early voting. And that goes for every Election Day, not just this one.
