Why Everyone Should Vote in '08

I will be the first to admit that the current election process is convoluted and outdated, but every voice needs to be heard. Left, Right, or Center, if you have an opinion on politics, you should vote and make your voice heard.

Some readers may have noticed I have a distinct dislike for the current political system and the federal and state elections. It seems there is not a single office in this country that is not elected in some haphazard, needlessly complex, and inordinately expensive manner. For example, in our presidential race, the individual public voter never actually directly selects their candidate.

First there is the primary, in which votes determine the number of delegates to the party's national conventions will vote for any given candidate to be the party's name on the ticket. However, this is not determined by the popular vote. Many states have a "winner take all" policy, much like the final election for the presidential office does with the Electoral College, which is particularly common in the Republican party. The Democrats, on the other hand, have what are called "Super Delegates", which are people directly involved in the political arena, whose votes are not swayed by the public's voting at all. In fact recent polls have shown it likely that Obama may well take the popular vote in today's election, thereby earning more delegates from the states, but Clinton seems to have the backing of enough Super Delegates that it may not matter. Congratulations Democrats, your primary is anything but democratic.

Then there is the actual election. It plays out like this: The people go out to vote for their given candidate (many of whom developed their opinions on who to vote for because someone in their past told them to never vote for anything but X party, not the issues), they cast their ballots (which are far too often tampered with, or cast on electronic voting machines that do this like switch the votes back and forth, start counting down instead of up, etc), the ballots are counted, and whoever comes out on top in each state is, in most states, given all the votes in the Electoral College, tossing the other 48% of the votes out the window. Then, the Electoral College decides who they want to vote for. Often, especially since the advent of televised elections, the delegates vote as directed, following the wishes of their state's majority. However, sometimes a delegate or two will vote for someone else, such as the first ever vote in the Electoral College for a Libertarian in the 80s, but never (yet) have enough votes been cast against the public's directions that changed who would have won.

So, do individual votes count enough? Are they direct enough? Definitely not. Does your vote count at all? Absolutely. Without your vote, your candidate may not get that one extra delegate he/she needs to take the primary. Without your vote, your party may not get that one extra vote in the Electoral College to defeat their opponent.

There are a lot of people out there who think their vote doesn't matter! If every single one of them came out and voted anyway, that's enough votes to literally change the course of an election. Don't forget, many times in American history a vote has been decided by only one vote.

So, every single time you see a chance to make your voice heard, every single election, no matter what office it's for, get out there and vote. You never know when it was your vote that counted the most.