Voting

2002-2022 | 20 years

In this episode of The West Wing, it is election night, and while the President wins big, the episode ends with there being nine House races too close to call, one of which is the race in Orange County, California’s 47th district(where I happen to have been born), where there is only an 88 vote difference.

As President Bartlet points out in a different episode “...we forget sometimes, in all the talk about democracy, we forget it's not a democracy, it's a republic. People don't make the decisions, they choose the people who make the decisions. Could they do a better job choosing? Yeah. But when you consider the alternatives…”

It is up to we the people to choose who we want to elect to congress. As I have written about previously, this election will determine who controls congress for the next 2 years. There are also a large number of close elections, which have outcomes that can be determined by a small number of people. However, politics has become increasingly polarized, with social media allowing campaigns to advertise to people without informing the people. This is why it is so important that not only do we go vote but that we inform ourselves when we vote so that we can vote based on substantive information rather than headlines. Although the internet has perpetuated surface-level learning, it can also be a great tool for those who want to learn about what you are voting on. For example, on Vote.org (I added a button on this page with the link) you can put in your address and see the issues and positions you will be voting on so that you can do research on them before entering the voting booth.

I am not yet old enough to vote, and given that this blog is meant for teens, many people reading this may not yet be old enough to vote. However, it is good to be educated on issues so that you can explain to people who can vote what is at stake, and why it is so important that people vote.

This country was founded because people were upset that they did not have the right to vote, and throughout its history, people have been fighting to make sure that all Americans have the right to vote. It is important to our society that we continue to engage with the process and what is going on in the world. So in the words of Will Bailey “No matter who you vote for, make sure you vote.”