Let’s be real. Voting can be a real pain. It’s not as simple as a few clicks on your phone or computer. You have to drive to some church or school that you’ve never been to, use ancient equipment, wait in long lines, and vote for a lot of people whose names you’ve probably never heard of. It can be intimidating, and even worse than that, it can feel pointless since you don’t know a lot about the policy of the people you’re voting for. But PLEASE do not let that stop you from voting November 6th.
As a young person, we need your vote now more than ever. There has been so much talk about this generation and the prolonged adolescence of millennials; delayed marriage and childbirth, staying on parents insurance, snowflakes, and safe spaces. It is good that we as a society are seeing this shift and acknowledging the slow process of maturing and growing up, but here is a place where we can set the line earlier. We can say: you are young but you are not without agency in your life or the life of your school, your city, your state, your country. You are young but it is time you get in the habit of democracy. You are young but your vote matters. We know the power of a vote. It is so much more than a tiny say in about subpar politicians. It is a statement of citizenship. You as a citizen of the United States have every right to vote, whether you know what your talking about or not.
I am trying to speak to a very specific audience here. I am trying to speak to those of you who come up with excuses, who think that you don’t know enough. Let me tell you, you do. When women got the right to vote, don’t you think that many of them felt unqualified or unfit? In my opinion, the ones who believe they are the least qualified to vote are usually the most qualified because it is their opinions that aren’t being adequately accounted for. So vote. Let’s tell tell this country what we want and change our own future at the ballot box.