It is a privilege to say that you didn’t vote because you didn’t think it would make a difference or because you were too cynical. You have the privilege to say that you don’t care and won’t vote. Now you need to check yourself. I think what most people forget is that when you vote on Election Day, you are not only voting for the president but also for your congressman, your governor, your state’s assembly, your state’s propositions and other potentially influential positions and laws. And unlike the presidential election, you do have a direct say in it. In California alone, 17 propositions were voted on. Citizens across the country voted on the minimum wage, marijuana, gun control, the death penalty, and many other issues.
So it is important to vote, but the truth is that not everybody is able to. 28% of Americans say that they don’t vote because they are too busy. Every election year, voting day falls on a Tuesday and not everyone is at a place where they can afford to take time off to go vote. One way to combat this is voting by mail.As an out of state college student, I, like many of my peers, opted to vote by mail. But I had a lot of trouble getting my vote in. For starters, I had to register to vote twice. I thought that since I was registered for and voted in the primary election, I would have automatically been registered for the general election, but I was not. I re-registered in September.
About a month ago, I realized that my family members had received their absentee ballots while I had not. I rechecked my voter status and confirmed that I was registered to vote by mail. Yet my ballot had not come. My college directed me to a site where you could print out a form to mail to your local county’s voter registration office in order to receive your absentee ballot. Four days after I had mailed the form, I still hadn’t received my ballot, so I called my county’s registrar of voters. They said that they had received my form the previous day (two days after I had sent it) and that ballot would arrive next week. It took two days for my form to get to the registrar, but it would take five days for my ballot to get to me.
Over the next week, I called the office four more times. My ballot still didn’t arrive after five days. On the sixth day, a sample ballot came. I called the registrar again to make sure that they had sent me an absentee ballot and not just a sample of one. They said that the ballot was probably on its way but that they were going to send me another ballot just in case. I finally received my ballot on the Thursday before the election, though I didn’t find out until Friday morning. I filled it out and gave it to the post office to make sure it would be shipped that day and arrive in time for the election.
I managed to get my ballot in, but there were more obstacles than I thought there would be. And I believe that one should not have to struggle in order to vote. I have many questions. Why did I need to register twice? Why didn’t a ballot get sent to me when I had registered the same way as my parents had? Why does it take so long for government mail to be shipped when it takes almost no time when I ship it? I wasn’t the only one on my campus who had trouble receiving their absentee ballots. Some were registered to vote in-state, so they were able to go to the local polls to vote, but not everyone could do that.
In the end, I may not have gotten the sticker, but I voted this election. I was ecstatic when I received my ballot and I felt relieved when I mailed it in. But now this election is over and before the next one I hope that voting can be made more accessible and easy for everyone. I hope that the kinks in the system, like the ones that I experienced, are smoothed out. I also hope that the voter registration time can be extended and that early voting and absentee voting is used in more states. There are many improvements that can and should be made to our voting system and we need to do so before our next elections in 2018.
If you would like to write for Her Campus Mount Holyoke, or if you have any questions or comments for us, please email mt-holyoke@hercampus.com.