by Joe Azar
Walking around campus this election season there is a growing number of booths and people around asking others if they are registered to vote. Hell, even actor Sean Astin, who starred in “Lord of the Rings” and “Rudy,” showed up at CMU in September to encourage people to cast their vote.
However, heading to a class a couple of days ago, a response from a student who was asked if they were registered upset me.
“No, thanks,” the student said. “My vote won’t mean anything anyways.”
This isn’t the only time I’ve overheard a student say this. Most of the time the election comes up, at least one person makes the argument that their vote won’t mean anything when it comes to determining the next leader of our country.
The argument that one vote compared to millions of other votes is miniscule in the big picture is accurate if people are looking at it from that perspective. However, the concern is that enough of the voting population, especially from the ages of 18-24, refuse to vote or attempt to make a difference in the country which is incredibly frustrating and unproductive.
Millennials get enough of a bad reputation for being lazy and unaware of what is happening in this country. I know that the majority of us aren’t lazy; we want to make our voices heard and want to have a say in the future of our country. Not deciding to vote is just pure laziness and adds fuel to the fire of the stigma we already have against us.
Please don’t tell me that you aren’t voting because both of our candidates are horrible options. However you may feel about the two front-runners for office, you have the option to make a decision, even if that is the lesser of two evils for some.
Watch the debates, read up online about both candidates and see what their stances on important issues are. There are even quizzes online that ask for your opinion on important topics and after the results they tell you who to vote for. Never before has an election been accompanied by the mass amount of coverage on social media and the internet as now. The excuse of lack of knowledge is not a valid one.
The ability to vote is a massive privilege many take for granted. Take it from me, my family would have done anything for the chance to vote a crooked dictator out of power in my home country of Venezuela. Instead, they sat there and watched helplessly as that man ruined the richest economy of the continent to the point of such high inflation that an apple now costs $25.
Don’t ever undervalue your voice or how much your opinion matters. Go out there, make a difference and utilize one of the great privileges this country allows us to have. Be ready to vote when Nov. 8 comes around.
