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Editorial Note: This article originally appeared in The Weekly Choice on October 28, 2004.
Advertisements on the TV and radio, billboards and hand-painted signs every which way and that – it comes to no surprise that there’s really only one thing on everyone’s minds these days: “Man, do they really have to start with the Christmas hoopla this early?!”
Ok, so make that two things on our minds, with the other (and more important, mind you) being that Election Day is just around the corner and it won’t be long until the voting population of the United States of America takes to the polls to choose who will lead our great nation over the next four years…or will it?
You see, I’m not here to push a particular political agenda upon you – that certainly wouldn’t be my place or anyone else’s, really – but what I am here to do is portray an important message to all of our readers across Northern Michigan – you really need to vote this fall. Vote your heart, vote your passions, heck – vote whatever your Rice Krispies tell you to on November 2nd – it’s no difference to me! What’s important is that you go out and actually do something on Election Day…
And believe me, if anybody understands the thoughts behind not voting, it would be me – I get that there are plenty of other things that you’d rather do than stand in a voting line during your lunch hour, and I get that many of us feel lead on by these candidates who may not care much about keeping their promises once elected to office, and I even get that when you do finally walk out of that voting booth at the end of this long, arduous process, it really can seem like your one vote isn’t going to matter that much anyways. Sure, I can see your line of reasoning with any of these perspectives, but let’s just take a quick glance at the numbers, shall we?
I used to agree with each and every one of those statements and several more that aren’t even suitable for print, however my own point of view changed quite a bit when I stumbled upon this little nugget of data: according to the United States Census Bureau, only 60% of those who could vote in the 2000 Presidential Election actually did, and that number is only up by 1% from the 1996 Election. That’s right, looking back at that legendary election four years ago that featured multiple recounts and added the phrase “hanging chad” to the history books, seventy-five million people didn’t vote. Cars wouldn’t start, a new episode of Friends was on that night, there was a full moon – I don’t know what the issue was, but I figure that it must’ve been a pretty big one to hold up the equivalent of the populations of twelve mid-western states from casting their ballots that Thursday night…
You know, it’s kind of sad when you look at it from a statistical point of view because that figure just goes to show you how the “My vote doesn’t matter – it’s only one vote…” mentality is so tragically flawed. No, your vote wouldn’t matter if you were the only person voting, but that’s simply not how our democratic system was designed to work anyways. Your vote is simply one person’s opinion, but coupled with your neighbors’ votes and their neighbors’ votes and so on, then we begin to get an accurate depiction of what the people of this country really want and where we want to go in the future. Regardless of who votes for who, it’s no wonder that so many people are unhappy with the system when only a fraction of us are really giving it a chance in the first place.
But maybe this year will be different, who knows? Just watching the polls and reading the newspaper from day to day, it seems that we’re all quite divided about who we want to see in the Oval Office next year, so hopefully that’s a sign that more people will see those voices through to the voting booth and beyond. When it all comes together Wednesday morning, your guy may not be the one to come out on top, but as long as you cast your ballot and made it known who you thought would be the best one for the job, at least you’ve done your part…
You will do your part, right?
For a list of local places to cast your ballot this Election Day, visit michigan.gov/vote on the web.
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