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In a society where political media is constantly thrown at you, voting can be stressful. Misleading information, accusations toward all candidates, and heated debates make forming educated opinions about each contender difficult. Despite the negativity surrounding elections, it is imperative that every person eligible, votes.
As someone who has yet to reach the voting age, I am excited to participate in elections to make a difference in my town, state, and country. In Maine, citizens can register as close as the day of the election, unhoused people can declare a non-traditional address at the municipal building of the town they occupy, and felons can vote even when they are incarcerated out-of-state. These policies that Maine legislators have enacted make voting more accessible.
Many people believe that their one vote does not matter. This bystander effect negatively affects voting. Roughly two-thirds of eligible voters cast their votes for the 2020 presidential election; This was a national high since 1900 (Pew Research Center). This means that an entire third of the population of eligible voters in the U.S. did not vote — and this was a high.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who wish they could participate in elections, and even more in countries that do not practice democracy. If you have the chance to make a difference, take it. Vote.
Brooke Whitmore
Holden
