Can I have a minute of your time to talk about voting? Please? Because that’s actually the most common reason I hear from people who confess they did not vote. “I didn’t have the time,” they say. Quickly followed by “It’s not like my vote matters, anyway.”
So I’m going to take a minute to tell you that your vote does matter, and it’s precisely because you have time. So much time. Let me explain.
By now you’re probably aware that 71% of people 65 and older turned out to vote in 2016. Why are so many older folks able to vote? Possibly because proportionately, a lot of them are retired and thus have the time to jump on the bus on a Tuesday during work hours and exercise their rights as American citizens.
Conversely, only 46% of people younger than 30 turned out for the 2016 election. And we all know how that turned out.
Now, I’m very aware that almost everyone in that Generation Y-Z age group who can find a job has one. Sometimes more than one. You are all hustling and no one has time for a nasty boss or a long bus ride or hours spent waiting in line because half the polling places in your area were mysteriously shut down, I wonder why.
But! The youngest group of voters is precisely the group with the most at stake. The younger you are, the more time you have left on this planet, assuming the old folks in power don’t try to take it all with them when they go. So the more your vote matters to you now and far into the future.
So use your vote. Find the time on November 6th if you possibly can, because it will affect every day of the rest of your life.
