Opinion: Miss a chance to vote, miss a lot

Bruce Walton

Bruce Walton is a sophomore news major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].

This November is the presidential election between incumbent Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. I love election year, and I can’t wait to vote. And yet for some reason, I am among a dying breed of millenials that truly care about elections, let alone the presidential election.

Yes, I know this is just the beginning of September, but it’s important to work on this now so you don’t scramble or even forget to register. For the next few weeks, I want to encourage students on campus to register and decide whom to vote for.

I don’t know who reads this, but I’m hoping it’s students, reading opinion columns to better understand their community and their generation. If you are a student, I hope that you’re registered to vote. I know a lot of people who aren’t, but I really would like them to get registered.

I hear so many people say, “Why try? I don’t like either of them. Plus, politics is so dirty now, no one comes out the winner.” If you have that or a similarly cynical outlook on American politics, you very well may be right, but hell, that’s so apathetic, I almost feel sorry for you.

Voting changes a lot. No, not one vote. Of course not one vote. Let’s be honest here: A one-vote difference has barely ever happened in American democratic history. But I’m not just asking one individual Johnny Blake in Eastway to go out, get registered to vote and help change America. If we all do our part, we can actually do something.

This isn’t recycling. This isn’t volunteer work that you have to take time out of your day from your friends. This is voting. Getting registered to vote is so easy, it’s just like signing up for iTunes, I swear. So many people are begging you to vote, and really, there are much bigger things you could do for this country that you don’t have to do.

And I hate it when people say, “Voting doesn’t affect me.” Of course it does.

Remember those couple of years of school where the classroom had fewer books, or not enough money for sports uniforms or clubs? Or remember when you did have enough money for new all those things? That was voting. You know how your parents aren’t dirt poor, and you are going to college and not living in a box? That’s because of voting.

The decisions that Americans make when voting for or against representatives, leaders and propositions is the entire foundation of the world we live in today. Whether you like it or not, once you get out of Kent, these voting decisions will be affecting you in ways that you will definitely notice.

I’m not asking just you to vote. I’m asking anyone who doesn’t have a criminal record to sign up, get registered and vote for somebody.