I’ve made a pitch to 3rd party supporters (and the candidates) A Safe Vote Third Party Candidates and Supporters, and to voters, in general, providing my honest criticisms of Hillary Clinton If You Want Democracy, You Must Earn It . Now, I want to make one last ditch effort plea to the non-voters.
This is for the people who fall into one of the following categories of non-voters, by reason:
- Really don’t care
- Don’t think your vote counts
- Don’t think voting matters
- Don’t like any of the candidates
- Have other plans (working all day, just don’t have time, going shopping, watching reality tv)
- Any other reason
My plea is this. Please vote anyway. I’d rather you try to prove me wrong, by voting, then prove me right by not voting. We have an epidemic in this country, and that is low voter participation. If every eligible voter was registered and voting, we’d have less corruption in our government. You think Mitch McConnell is still in office, because of high voter turnout? No, it’s because they have low turnout in KY, like most places. Members in congress don’t want high turnout, because the more the voters are watching what they do, the bigger the risk that the elected official might be voted out.
I worked at the Board of Elections, and I can tell you that your vote does count. Every one. On election night, results are transferred from each polling place, to the county Board of Elections. Those are posted, and news outlets report them. But those are only “un-official” results. They become official, after an audit. The audit compares what was received on election night, to visually checking every machine, from every polling place. Then the results are validated, and become official. The initial tally is generally found to always match the audit, which is why most don’t worry about the audit. But rest assured, your vote does count.
Even if you are in a state that is notoriously blue or red, (democrat or republican), please don’t sit out. This election will have a ton of unlikely voters (people who don’t vote often) and new voters. The polls you see online are all skewed and it’s best to just ignore them. Pretend it is a dead heat. 45/45/5/5. I’m giving 5% each to top 3rd party candidates, because they can effect the margins that easily. They won’t win, but they can screw up the race for the 2 candidates who do have a conceivable chance to win.
If the race really is that close, do you want someone else to decide who leads this country? Even if you hate politics, please think about this – it is your country. It is mine and ours. It is on us to take care of this country, and that means voting.
Do me this favor. Vote tomorrow. And then vote for the next 3 years. If we get the turnout over 90% for 4 years, which will include local elections, I bet we can start to fix things in this country.
Prove me wrong, and vote. Just don’t prove me right by sitting out. Our democracy can’t afford for anyone to sit out of the election process.
Image Rotated 