Life on the Outside

The following is from my twice-monthly column,”It’s News to Me,” in the Berthoud Recorder.. This column will be published on Oct. 30, 2008

I have a confession to make. When I was younger and, of course, far less wise than I am now, I did something I really shouldn’t have. I’m not proud of it, but I have carried the burden of my shame long enough. After 20 years, it is long past time that I came clean.

You see, in my younger days I was one of those stereotypical disaffected and disenfranchised youth you see lurking about in darkened corners of beatnik coffee shops discussing philosophy and how the previous generation had completely destroyed my future. In fact, I was so cynical and discontented that I intentionally and purposely chose not to vote during the 1988 presidential election.

I know, I know. It’s horrifying. How could I have purposely chosen to give up one of the building blocks of our democratic foundation, the voice of the people! You see, during those sadly dark days, I really didn’t care for either presidential nominee and, without a candidate to get behind, I let myself believe it really didn’t matter if I voted anyway. I mean, after all – how much of a difference could one vote really make?

At the time, I blamed the Electoral College and the role it plays in our elections. Prior to 1988, I had believed (like many Americans) that when I pulled that lever (or punched that ticket as the case may be) in the voting booth, my vote was then counted among the many millions of other votes and from these votes a winner would be declared. Right? Surely the candidate who received the most votes would always be the person elected for the job.

I won’t get into the debate about whether or not the Electoral College system should be repealed or continue on as is. Personally, I’m not convinced that a system that hasn’t changed all that much since its inception more than 200 years ago, when high-speed communication was a reference to a mail coach with a team of six fresh horses, isn’t due for a serious overhaul. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Election day finally arrived and friends, co-workers, classmates, even complete strangers would ask me if I had voted, some even being so bold as to ask who I had voted for. Initially I admitted to my transgression, arguing there was no point behind voting or even being part of the entire political process. After being chastised a handful of times, I quickly learned to be a bit more deceptively vague in my answers, often redirecting the conversion to someone else or on to another topic entirely, like whether or not this new idea called “global warming” had any merit.

Somewhere over the next four years, I saw the error of my ways. You see, I realized every time there was a discussion about how some new state tax was affecting local schools, or how the new county commissioner was misspending tax payer dollars or how the new governor was working to pass a new law I disagreed with, I had no right to join the conversation. I hadn’t voted, so what right did I have to complain? I realized I had given up my voice in not only choosing the next leader of our country, but also my voice in choosing every new local, county or state official, every new law, every new tax bill, and on and on.

Since that fateful time, I have made a point to not only vote in every election, but to become as knowledgeable and informed about the candidates and issues on the ballot as I can possibly be. There are a number of groups, such as Project Vote Smart and the League of Women Voters, that offer excellent information on the candidates, their voting records and their political platforms, along with detailed information on the ballot issues. It’s my responsibility to know who and what I am voting for. Only then have I actually earned the right to vote.