by Stan Dyer

Created on: November 07, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

In a recent Mayoral election in my city of over 105,455 Americans, only 20,888 took the time to voice their opinions. This was a "Mail-In Ballot" where people did not even have to leave the comfort of their easy chairs to participate in the democratic process, and they still chose not to exercise their individual franchise. This town is not the exception. This type of lackadaisical attitude about the election process is endemic and I do not understand it. I want to know, "Why don't you vote?"

It surprises me how few people know how much of the Civil Rights Movement centered on the right to vote. In 1965, when Martin Luther King, Jr. marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma, Alabama on the road to the State's Capitol in Montgomery, he was taking people to register to vote. In 1963, when Medgar Evers was murdered outside his home, he was campaigning against "Jim Crow" laws, which included, among other things, poll taxes, literacy tests for voters, and gerrymandering. It all started in 1787 when the Constitution of the United States was written. The original draft of that documnet excluded "people of color", "Indians", "slaves" and women from the right to vote. Now in America, more people than ever have the right to vote and,yet,fewer of them are voting than ever before.

People tell me they believe their lone votes do not matter, and they want to know why I even bother, so, I tell them. I probably tell them more than they want to know. I tell them exactly how I feel. At least they know I do not take my one, lone vote lightly and I do not believe anyone else should either. After all, no matter how big or how small you might think it is, it is still your vote.

Elections stop being about popularity once we graduate college. As adults, we are not electing student body presidents or homecoming queens. We are electing the people who will represent our best interests in the Halls of Government. That is important. So many people complain about the way government is handled, but so few of them take the time to do anything about it. Voting is a good start.

This country represents over 231 years of the first, modern Republic founded on the principles of Democracy; Rule by the People. That should mean every citizen has a voice in government and every citizen should take part. I admit that the Founding Fathers were a bit off base considering the initial Constitution they drafted denied the right to vote to so many for so long. Even the thought of Democracy seems awkward

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