Thoughts on the Latest Issue, Pt. 1: I Didn’t Vote

TIFFANY FITZPATRICK
The Signal

I didn’t vote. Did you?

I have my reasons for not voting. A  big factor leading to this decision is that I only vote when I know exactly why I’m standing in that line and what I want to come from it. I don’t vote just because I can, or because I should, or to say I did.

Growing up, I heard a lot about it being both our right and our responsibility as citizens, to vote. That we owe it to our communities and country to go vote in each election. Maybe that’s true, but is there really a value in voting just because it’s what we’re supposed to do?

Or is the uniformed, obligation-vote perhaps the biggest form of voter fraud?

Making decisions or casting votes solely because of the obligation or ability to do so and basing those decisions on rumor and hearsay, even though we often consider ourselves the “little man” in politics, is a gross abuse of power.

I know that it is our right, as citizens of this country, and as citizens of our cities, counties and states, to vote. I disagree that it is our responsibility to always vote. The responsibility of the citizens isn’t to cast votes. It is to cast informed votes.

If we can’t do that, we owe it to each other to skip the lines and the voting booths and just stay home.

To quote Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben (and segway into part two of this post, which goes up tomorrow): “With great power, comes great responsibility.”