Apr. 5th - Vote

*Orginally posted on myspace, pictures/formatting not correct.


*knock* *knock*



"Would you like to register to vote" said the girl at my door this afternoon



"Thanks, but I’m already registered" I reply



"Yes, but if you fill this out there is early voting locations available on campus" She says as she holds her forms.



"School, will be out before the election though, so I’ll just vote from my home polling location" is my reply.



She insist, "Yes, but if you vote early you will be less likely to forget!"



"I won’t forget, I always vote"



"But if you fill this out you’ll be able to vote here in the fall election"



"Sorry but I’m graduating this semester, but thanks for offering" I say



"Oh, ok then" she replies as she heads to the next room down looking for students to register.



Why am I writing about this brief encounter you ask? Its not even a unique encounter really, as this was actually the 3rd time in the last two days I’ve been asked to register to vote. Well I certainly don’t have any problem at all with people wanting to help others get registered to vote, in fact I think its a great idea. Everyone should vote in every election, there really aren’t many good excuses not to... I mean like if you are in a coma on election day then you have a good reason, but most people are just to apathetic!


The media (usually outlets with a more democratic spin) have been trying to get the "Youth" of the country to vote for a long time, with there lame gimmicks and advertisements.... Remember "Vote or Die" and "Rock the Vote"



Saddly nothing has worked yet


However, none of them have been that successful. Though this years Democratic primary is shaping up to be an event that might get the youth vote more involved especially here in Indiana where the primary is actually going to matter and both Obama and Hillary are campaigning now in full force.

Though the problem certainly extends beyond just the "youth vote", the percentage of middle aged voters is also really low, let alone the percentages of minority voters. We here about the importance or lack their of the "black vote" all the time. The message needs to reach everyone, but sadly I feel the trend lowering voting percentages will continue over time.



Anyway, back to my encounter earlier... Its funny how she though I would forget or most likely she thought if I wasn’t here on campus where people were actively telling me to vote, I wouldn’t vote. I assume many college students are like that, we only care about things like politics when its something popular to talk about. Its our duty as American citizens to vote in the elections, and if we don’t vote then we have no right to complain about political things in our country. Not voting in my opinion is giving up your right to voice future complaints.



Someone once told me their reason for not voting in the last presidential election (this was shortly after the election) was because they weren’t "informed enough, to make a responsible decesision"... Funny how they only a couple weeks after were suddenly informed enough to make complaints. If you want to bash whoever wins, more power to you, as long as you voted your opinion (no matter how crazy) matters. However, if you don’t vote I as well as the elected officials who represent you, don’t really care what your opinion on the matter is. If you get upset with the way your congressman votes on bills, but you never take the time to vote for or against him, he/she has no reason to care... you aren’t a vote for him that he could lose, or a vote against him that he could possibly win by agreeing with you. I consider myself to be above average when it comes to keeping up with politics but I am in no way a political guru, however even if I didn’t know who was running in the election I would still vote, and exercise my right to voice an opinion.



Some people say they don’t like the republicans or the democrats and they think their vote doesn’t matter so thats why they don’t vote. However its thoughts like that, that keep us locked in a two party system. The smaller parties need the votes so they can get more campaign funding and so that they can get their name in the media. The Republicans and Democrats are the only ones allowed in the main presidential debates, because no one else gets a high enough percentage of the votes... thats how they decide who to let in. So yes your vote does matter, the third party might not win that year, but you may be seriously helping them further down the line.

Also sometimes votes are decided by a super small margin, just the other week during the student government election here at Purdue the B.A.P. (Boiler Advancement Program) was voted down by a difference of 1%! Of course the Purdue election is still hotly contested due to other reasons so we hopefully will have a re-vote here, though it won’t be over the B.A.P. again. (election drama is fun isn’t it :P)



Honestly I agree that there are a lot of problems with the government, and there will probably never be a candidate I 100% agree with, but I will always make sure that my opinion counts and I urge you to vote as well. I don’t care who you vote for just make sure you get out there and vote!



Sorry if this was more of a rant :P and I’m sure it isn’t written very well, :P I’m running late on getting this done on time and am feeling to lazy to proof read it right now, so I might have to come back and edit it later.



Oh yeah I’m running for President in 2020, if I don’t become a dictator before then... remember "In 2020 White in Right"



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