It’s Election Day.
Everyone tells me that means you should vote.
You should go out there and have a say.
Go Democracy!
Well, I am usually one of those people, but I have a confession to make: I’ve never voted, and I’m not going to this year.
It’s not that I’m too young, since I’m 19, and it’s not that I’m apathetic, but I’ve just never sent out for an absentee ballot in time. Since I’m registered in my home state, not the lovely state of MA, for all intents and purposes, I CAN’T vote, unless I skip school to head home for the day. And although I think it would be fun to vote, to feel important and like I’m doing something worthwhile, I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing for me NOT to cast my ballot either.
I’m pretty fed up with all these e-mails I’ve been getting from national progressive organizations telling me who to vote for, as though the merits of my voting are just to get their politicians elected. So, I say go out and vote if you have an opinion, have a specific candidate you support, have a cause you feel passionate about, or just want to pull those fun levers in the booth. But, if you don’t know anything about the candidates, don’t feel like looking it up, and don’t care about the results, it’s OK to live that lifestyle. You don’t have to vote just for the sake of it. I’m just trying to say, no peer pressure. Only do what you feel right doing. Voting just for the sake of voting can be dangerous too, y’know.
And if you’re like me, and ran out of time, then use the precious time you’re saving by not voting, and think about what living in a democracy really means. At least that’s what I’d like to try to do.
Fun facts about Election Day from wikipedia:
Election Day in the United States occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November.
The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8.
The U.S. is (one of?) the only country with an election day on a Tuesday
Election Day is November 2, 2010 this year.
A uniform day for having presidential elections was first passed by Congress in 1845.
I voted, but I too am annoyed by the way that everyone makes voting seem like this act of godliness or something. That only a foolish person wouldn’t vote! Vote or die!
Its all quite silly, I voted cause I wanted to… but if I didn’t want to (and I seriously considered it), I wouldn’t have voted…. and that would have been a legitimate expression of my political beliefs.