Your voice, your vote
There are five seasons of the year for field organizers and activists. Winter, spring, summer, fall and election season - the time when you table and door knock for hours while empowering students to use their voice and cast a vote in the November election.
This election cycle throws Gov. Rick Snyder in the bully pulpit with Democrat Mark Schauer, and looking at the polls, the fight is going to be a bloody one.
Who will rise to the top? That is for the voters to decide. More specifically, that is for the students to decide.
I work for a number of nonprofits and other voting rights groups. I am not writing to represent those groups. My opinions are my own. However, one thing is certain: the future relies on your vote.
Preparation for the polls starts long before submitting a ballot. There is education involved.
Pop quiz. True or false:
1) If you did not register to vote in person, you cannot vote absentee the first time. True.
2) You can register to vote the same day as the election. False.
3) You have a specific polling place where you must vote and cannot just walk into a polling location on Election Day. True.
I am a cynic. I know the political system we have is broken. But I know how to fix it: voting, and voting smart.
Students are the election. Our generation is one of the largest in history, bigger than the Boomers. If every student voted in Mount Pleasant, the political landscape would change.
I am neither a Democrat, nor a Republican; I am a Progressive. I am pro-choice, pro-LGBTQAI and pro-environment. Many on this campus share the same views, and there are people in power who wish to silence these opinions.
There are people of power who want to make it difficult for you to vote because they know how powerful the vote is. If the vote didn’t have power, the Suffragettes would not have starved themselves for the right to vote and The Civil Rights Movement would have never occurred.
Your vote is your voice, and your voice is powerful. This election, use it to shape the future of Michigan.
