More need to participate in election process

• Tweet
• 

I have been working at elections in Grand Rapids for nearly three years and it is nauseating to see how many people actually vote.

I have heard of voter apathy and the lack of interest overall, but it is nuts to have a rough average of 10 percent of people in my precinct vote. I read on a PEW research page that less than half of the registered voters in the United States vote for president and much less for local elections.

Not voting is simply an ignorant act on your part. I guess wisdom is too much too hope for in a country where on average around 40 percent elect a president, but 65 percent choose who sings well.

If you do not vote, you really have no right to complain about a government decision even if it really sucks.

One thing that is really annoying to me is the mindless ramblings from the mouths of eligible voters who did not exercise the right to vote.  They whine about policies, laws and everything in between because they do not agree.

More than 200 years ago, independence was declared and people began dying for rights like the one to vote. Of course the women’s movement and the civil rights movement added to who could vote. But complacent voters basically disgrace those proud Americans who risked everything to get the right to vote.

Not voting is like saying you do not care. This is especially important to understand when people do not vote in local elections. Local elections affect people more than some idiot in Washington D.C.

Want the right to complain when the powers that be make a truly appalling decision? Then exercise the right to vote.

Voting is a remarkable gift. People young and old in other countries actually fight and even die for this right; a right that so many in this nation take for granted. People in America should vote because we can. If we do not, we might one day wake up in a country where we cannot. Try complaining about the issues then.

A government by the people and for the people just cannot work without the people. It is a simple fact. Like Captain Kirk without Spock or Frodo Baggins without Samwise Gamgee, a democracy without voters is just a shell and has no power.

While it is easy to say, “One vote doesn’t make a difference,” the reality is that every vote counts.

As an individual, a vote may seem to be little more than a murmur, but when one vote is combined with the votes of others who share the same views, it becomes a voice. The more like voters there are, the louder that voice grows.

Just get out and vote every election so we never see the day when we are told we cannot vote.