To Vote or Not to Vote?
By: Kaylee Beattie
Millennial’s all across the country finally have the ability to utilize one of their most important rights as American citizens: the right to vote. The presidential election will take place on November 8, 2016. With the first major election coming up this year and our generation finally being of age, the power is literally in our hands! But, with thoughts like “my vote doesn’t matter,” “it doesn’t matter” or “who cares,” are millennials even going to vote?
It’s hard to ignore all those thoughts, but it’s also becoming even harder to ignore how intense this presidential race is becoming. GOP debates trend on Twitter for days, caucuses are shown all over TV and who can even ignore some of the remarks presidential candidate Donald Trump makes? The 2016 presidential race is making history every day. And whomever the president ends up being will be sure to make even more history. But it’s up to the American citizens to decide who will make that history. And with over 44 million millennials eligible to vote this year, our demographic can make a huge impact.
After pondering the question “will my generation vote or not?” I decided to interview a few college students to see where they stood on the right to vote.
A WVU student (who was eligible to vote in the 2012 election) told me, “I don’t vote solely because the popular vote doesn’t declare the president. Even though it’s only happened about four times in election history, it’s still not the way a democracy should work.” This student refers to the Electoral College, which is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. These electors, about 530 of them, essentially elect the president. Most of the time, their votes represent the popular vote (the votes you and I cast), but this is not always the case – the Bush election in 2000 is a prime example.
This student also added that he believes the 2 party system – Republican and Democrat – does not work anymore. “I believe that our generation is closer to the middle,” the student told me, meaning that our generation values ideas from both parties. This student believes that our generation doesn’t vote solely because we are not hardcore republicans or hardcore democrats; we are more in the middle.
When a student from Harrisburg told me that they would not be voting because they didn’t like any of the candidates or what they represent, I understood what the WVU student meant… because how can you vote if you don’t believe in something whole-heartedly? These thoughts dishearten young voters everyday, especially when most millenials are very passionate and strong in their opinions – both political or not!
On the opposite end of that spectrum, a Shippensburg University student told me quite the opposite. “It’s my number one duty as a U.S. citizen to vote,” they told me. “Every vote matters, especially because so many American’s choose not to vote!”
Many other millienials believe that voting is important simply because it gives us access to another right, the right to complain! Two different students, one from Juniata and one from Central Penn, told me that they are voting mainly because you can’t complain if you don’t vote!
I personally believe that the right to vote is an extremely powerful one. Our generation is so massive and could make so many changes, but there are boundaries that hold us back. With the upcoming election, I think the power is in millenial’s hands, but we need reason to believe we hold that power!