"Democracy is great in that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid."


Okay. So, maybe I'm a bit slow in my issues. Maybe I like to pick and choose depending on my mood. Maybe I'm just random. Hey, it happens. Anyway, onto the topic at hand. I was reading some articles about voting. They came from MSNBC.com mostly, though I did see a few others in other places. I also read the comments and people's reactions. The main points in these articles were:

1. Vote.
2. Doesn't matter who/what/where/when/why, just vote.
3. Don't vote as it doesn't do anything.
4. Don't vote because if you do, you're responsible for whatever happens.
5. Don't vote if you are uninformed/were told to vote for a specific person/yaddayadda...

And any interaction between any combined set of ideas from the list above.

Well, this dilemma got me thinking. Voting is important. We were given the right to vote by our forefathers in an attempt to keep us away from a totalitarian government. They understood that by giving this seemingly simple yet ultimately complex power to the people we would have a say in whatever happened. I believe they hoped we'd always value our freedoms over anything else (as that is basically what the President's sole responsibility is, to defend the Constitution). However, they also understood that even though we have this responsibility, it can be used against us. Enter the Electoral College.

The Electoral College was created to address two concerns when forming the US rules of electing a President. Basically, one side was strictly for the populus. They believed that voting for a President should be in the hands of the people. After all, that's why they had come together in the first place. The other side argued that "common" people (people who didn't spend their days dealing in politics) hadn't the knowledge to be able to make a truly informed decision. They wanted the Senate to choose. Addressing both sides, our forefathers wrote "Article 2" of the Constitution, creating the Electoral College. The Electoral College, although free to decide themselves who wins the election, usually votes for the popular vote (our vote)'s choice. This isn't always the case, but a majority of the times it's true (according to Wikipedia's article on the "United States presidential election" it's something like 93%, where the other 7% of times were laid with controversy in some way).

Does this mean voting is any less important? No. As I've stated in my previous blog, we directly vote for our Senators and our House of Representative members. We directly vote for amendments to our US Constitution and state constitutions. If we disagree with someone enough, we can vote them out of office. Our vote still has power, we just forget where the real power lies. After all, the President is important, but really serves as a glorified figure head for most of the time.

Okay, so we've seen that voting is important. This raises another (and quite valid) question: Does being informed make a difference? Logically, it would, but I'm personally stuck between a rock and a hard place on this. I'll admit that I'm not always informed enough to vote when it comes to smaller things like the relabeling/redrafting/etc...of laws in my area, or those who sit on the council in my state. Why? Well, politics get really dry when you have to deal with it every day. It's not my favorite subject and often I don't have time to look up anything when I get busy between work, school, and my chaotic social life. And, I'll shamefully admit that I often don't vote in smaller elections unless I really know what's going on. I have voted on issues that I didn't exactly know what they meant and then later kicked myself when I found I should of voted the other way. But, hey, I exercised my right. Was it worth it?

And, since I vote, I'm responsible for whatever happens. If I don't vote, I'm still responsible because I could of changed the scales and caused the opposite reaction to happen. You know, this is a burden I bare with humility. I'd rather be burdened with guilt than not have the chance to vote because of where I live. If you don't like it, then move. There are plenty of places that you can go where you don't have to worry about making decisions. They are made for you. Just don't go to some countries where voting is mandatory. You might feel pressured to do something! Oh no!

At the end of the day, I'm still sitting on my fence. Voting is important. So is being informed. By process of elimination, not voting is still...voting...