In the 2016 United States’ election, only 61.4 percent of eligible voters bothered to vote. (Read about it here.) That means millions of voters who could have had a say in our democratic process chose, for whatever reason, to remain silent.
Voting can be difficult, particularly in the 13 states that still don’t have early voting. In some countries, election day is a national holiday; that hasn’t happened here yet. Some states have laws that require employers to allow time off for voting, but there were voting centers in the 2016 election where the wait was several hours long; the time off allowed is generally less than that. Clearly, this is a flaw in both the distribution and staffing of those locations, and it harms our democratic process.
You can check the voting rules and voter registration deadlines for your state here: https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote. If you are in any way outraged by recent political events, please remember that the midterm elections are coming up on November 6th. In some places, early voting has already begun. Even if you aren’t outraged, this is one of the few civic duties we have – military service is optional, jury duty is rather random, but elections are regularly scheduled and announced well in advance. At bare minimum, voting is a responsibility you should follow through on.
If you are inclined towards political involvement, take a look at this map and see if there’s a #StandOnEveryCorner protest scheduled near you. (If there isn’t, you can schedule one.) Some of these are daily events until election day. I’ve been combining the occasional night at Naperville’s corner with Pokemon hunting and occasionally exploring local restaurants. (There’s a grilled cheese restaurant! It’s called Everdine’s Grilled Cheese Co. and was quite delicious.)
Local and state elections matter, and in the past couple years, there have been several examples of every vote making a difference.
Be that vote.
Addendum: You can view your ballot choices on this website by entering your address: https://www.ballotready.org/.