Why You Should Vote

Written by Kareem

Oh boy, another person who’s going to talk about voting. Get a load of this guy, right? Voting doesn’t even matter: nobody ever does anything in office, anyways.

This is a perfectly understandable reaction to someone telling you to go vote. Millions of Americans every year express this feeling: the feeling that nothing changes or that their vote doesn’t matter anyways. And if you’re one of those people, don’t feel like a minority: around ⅓ of eligible voters don’t vote each election season.

But that mentality is wrong.

Voting is what keeps the country moving, slowly or quick. Voting for the people who support the progression and development of our nation allows us to reach a better state. And don’t think that just because an issue isn’t directly related to you, it won’t affect you.

Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the US Supreme Court. It was a landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, establishing a woman's right to choose under the constitutional right to privacy. The overturning placed abortion rights in the hands of the states, rather than making it a national right.

Because of this, it became much harder to get an abortion in the United States, even if someone's health (and even life) was at stake. Oftentimes, women need to get an abortion to protect their reproductive organs, and states with more abortion restrictions prevent some individuals from getting one until their health is beyond repair. This affects women and even their partners as well, since a woman’s future reproductive ability could be compromised, preventing them from starting their own families in the future.

Now, Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the President, and not voted in by the people. This means that Roe V Wade overturned was inevitable, right? This means that voters couldn’t have influenced the Supreme Court in any way, right?

No. Not at all, actually. Because guess who voted for the president who appointed some of these justices in the first place?

We did.

I’m not trying to preach that Roe V Wade’s overturn was essential for human morals, and that getting an abortion is effectively murder. I’m also not trying to preach that Roe V Wade is good. Fact is, the after-effects of the overturn were devastating, and plenty of families couldn’t afford to support a child, leading to the increase of children in foster care. States who legalized abortions were faced with floods of individuals attempting to obtain abortion medications. Furthermore, many women were (and still are) not prepared to have a child, or simply cannot afford it in their living conditions.

And voting caused this. So did not voting. By not understanding America’s situation if a certain candidate wins, eligible voters who don’t vote have welcomed themselves into a trap that keeps their voices unheard.

Yet, non-voters have a right to feel the way they do about voting not helping the country enough. Let’s discuss why non-voters should move past these feelings and vote for candidates who will represent them in the democracy.

First of all, every vote counts. Even if you’re just 1 person, when enough people are voting for someone, the votes add up. If you think that someone else is going to win even if you vote for your candidate, you should still vote since that individual embodies who you feel should’ve won, and you know it's not on you if the other candidate wins.

Secondly, change does happen in government. It’s just often slowly executed or behind the scenes to where you don’t notice it until it’s extreme. One example of this is inflation in America in the past few years, with a 2022 post-pandemic peak of 9.1% change. People, to this day, have pushed the narrative that inflation is horrible, but in 2024, the number is around 3% (which is still high, but not nearly as much).

News outlets and media share responsibility here, as few of them report the statistics as much as they should. This is partially because it’s easier to report extremely sudden or devastating news to capture the public eye rather than “boring statistics about inflation.” Get your news from a credible source that talks about topics with little to no bias, since bias can cause your perception of the government to be skewed.

Many people are not satisfied with either candidate for the 2024 Presidential election. With Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 of 2021 and his harsh policies that make him unappealing to many candidates, many people are not a fan of seeing him in government. Meanwhile, because of Kamala Harris’s “inaction” in government as vice president and her occasionally controversial (and contradicting) statements, people aren’t a fan of her either. She would also be the first female President in US history, which many people are unfortunately not prepared for.

It’s because of this that one must do their research on a candidate and what they’re likely to vote for. Whichever candidate represents your ideals better is likely the candidate who you’d rather have in government, and if that requires a candidate with slightly less cognitive ability, so be it.

But not voting at all means you are giving grounds for a candidate who you support less than another candidate to win. It means your opinion goes to waste, and you lose the opportunity to express yourself. As we already saw with Roe V. Wade’s overturn, many people are not going to be happy when they don’t vote and someone in government makes a direct impact on their daily lives

So vote. As Americans, we have a great freedom that our votes are counted as our votes and not someone else forcing us to vote. Even if filling out that form or going to that voting center takes you a few hours to complete, it’ll likely make years of your life better.