Voting Matters

There are many reasons why I believe in the power of voting.

One is because several years ago, I was out campaigning with my friend Kolby and the late August heat was bearing down on us and we had walked most of the day and I was probably a little hungry too. And we had been canvassing in all kinds of places – homeless shelters, soup kitchens, the Greyhound bus station – trying to register people to vote. And because it was hot and I was tired and probably a little hungry too, I thought about how strange it was that we were going into all these places to find people who are transient, mostly struggling in poverty, who probably had a very slim chance of going out to vote.

Still, we were out fighting for every single infinitesimal chance at a vote. But I had the gall to point out to my friend a little of the absurdity of what we’re doing.

“Do you ever think this might not be worth it?” I asked. “I mean we’re out here trying to register people who may not even show up to the polls.”

He looked back at me like I was the dumbest dummy he had ever met. “Don’t you see?” he said. “This is what democracy is all about.” That everyone, everyone, everyone – rich, poor, transient, homeless, powerful, corporate executive, janitor, whatever – everyone gets a vote. From city council to state representative to senator to president, every single person gets to have a say in who that person is. 

That’s stuck with me ever since. We were walking and knocking and registering as a physical incarnation of democracy – to say to every single person: You’re voice, your vote matters. We say it all the time, we learn it in second-grade but because we beat each other up and we leave each other out, some people need reminding of that.

Another reason is that I know representation matters. A couple years ago I heard a pastor give a talk where she asked, “Do you know who does best in our school system? It’s middle-class women. And it’s mainly because middle-class women designed our school system.”

Despite the highest ideals of our republic, we know that we have a system where one group of people is successful far beyond the others – white, affluent men. And it is because the system we have was built and is maintained by white, affluent men. If we want to change that, then we have to change who represents us.

A third reason is that fifteen years ago, a young teenage boy sat at his family dinner table and watched on TV as bombs dropped in the middle of the night on a town that he had never heard of on the other side of the world. He saw as the bombs streaked across the pitch black darkness. He heard as they thundered upon impact.

And he thought of the innocents – the men, women, and children who had done nothing wrong but would die anyway as the bombs dropped down on their city. The boy knew that many of the leaders who pushed for this bombing claimed to be Christian, claimed to follow the One who said “Blessed are the peacemakers”, claimed to be a part of the faith that dreamed of a day when nations would study war no more. He knew that only a handful of votes had ushered in those who were in power. A handful of votes had led to the bombing of a city on the other side of the world. The boy knew that and it never stopped troubling him.

This may be what I believe to be the most important reason to vote: I know that our system of government is not in any way perfect. I know that it does not give full representation, even though we claim it does. And I know that the process of governing and legislating in the best interests of the people has been corrupted. I know that gives many people reason not to vote.

But if you’re vote didn’t matter, then why do those in power try to keep you from doing it? From the inception of the Constitution through Jim Crow and women’s suffrage, from poll taxes on down to Voter ID and the purging of voter rolls – they don’t want you vote.

Those in power don’t want you to vote because if you don’t vote, they stay in power. And they continue to create a system where only they succeed. They don’t want you to vote because when you vote – when we all vote – we create a nation where we can all succeed. We create that more just, equitable and charitable world that we long for. But when you don’t vote, they get to keep stacking the deck so that only they can succeed.

I know you’ve heard this all before. But just to add one more gentle reminder: Go vote.

Voting is precious. Voting is sacred. Voting is what people have fought and bled and gone to prison and died for.

Vote on behalf of those who cannot. Because for every person like me who went to the polls this morning and didn’t have to wait in a long line and didn’t have to prove with six forms of ID who I was and felt sure that my vote will be counted, there is at least one who did not have that same experience. There is a person convicted of a felony who may never get a chance to vote. There is someone who will find that his registration has been purged by a new law. There is someone who will find a line that is hours long and will have to leave because she works an hourly job and can’t afford to miss work.

Vote – because if you don’t, there may never be a chance for those whose voice will not be heard today.