I’ll start off by saying that you won’t receive any political lecturing from me in this piece. The world’s extremely divided right now – over a plethora of issues, I might add – so I want to focus on a time-run tradition that spans back to 1776. Something that every year, millions of Americans make the slow commute to a designated building to cast their opinion for who should hold an elected office until the next election.

      That’s right – we’re talking about voting, y’all!

      Despite our Founding Fathers fighting for Americans’ right to vote (and suffragists and the Civil Rights movement fighting for those who were not originally included in the first right to vote), every year, millions of U.S citizens forget to uphold this responsibility to choose their next leader. Voting is seen as a punishment, rather than a civic duty, which is probably why so many individuals failed to cast their ballot in prior elections.

     One of these prior elections in specific? 2016. About 138 million Americans cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein, each going out of their way to uphold their constitutional right. And to the untrained ear, 138 million sounds like a lot of votes.

      But it gets crazier when you realize that 138 million is only 58.1% of the U.S population. 58%. A little less than half of the country couldn’t be bothered to have a say in who their next president was going to be for the next four years. The same goes for their senator and representative. A Senate seat term lasts for six years – can you imagine having the opportunity to choose who will represent your rights for the next six years and NOT giving your say on them?

      If you go back four years earlier, though, to 2012, only 58.6% of eligible voters actually voted. In 2008? 61.6%. In an ideal world, that number would be close to 100% each time. Otherwise, what’s the point of a democracy if only half of those eligible actually have a say? 

This shouldn’t make you lose faith in the democratic system – not at all. Rather, it’s to inspire every reader to use their vote to truly have a voice in the running of our country after January 20. No matter your political opinion, everyone needs to uphold their constitutional right to vote for their leaders, especially in the midst of the chaos that is 2020. The last day for mail-in ballots to be received in Illinois is October 29 – make a plan and make sure your vote is counted.

      Before I conclude, I should probably establish that I will not be able to vote by November 3 this year. And I won’t be pulling an Anthony Michael-Hall from “The Breakfast Club” and getting a fake I.D to vote, either. So, as far as any legal adult is concerned, I have no real say in who my president and other elected officials are for their next term.

      But that’s not stopping me from encouraging every single individual I know to register to vote and cast their ballot this November. And it shouldn’t deter those who are ineligible to vote but still want a say in who gets elected to what office this year. After all, it’s our lives that are going to be impacted by the final decision, no?

      So get out there, minors! Campaign for the candidate of your choosing (socially distancing, of course), join a phone bank to make sure those that are eligible to register to vote, and most importantly, bug your parents. Make sure that, no matter their political stance, they take to the polls, either by mail or in-person (safely), and do what we’ve always done to uphold our civic duty: VOTE.