I'm 73 years of and have dutifully voted in every election but never really thought that my vote made any difference at all. It probably didn't since in most presidential elections I almost never voted for the winner. I was better when picking senators and representatives.
I live in Illinois so, when I lived in Chicago, I registered as a Democrat so that I could vote in the Democratic primary and possibly determine who the winner in the final election would be by influencing the choice of the Democratic candidate. When I lived in the suburbs, I registered as a Republican on the same principle since, by and large, the Republican candidate won in the suburbs. I am happy to report that I never voted for a governor that went to jail (not an easy accomplishment in Illinois).
But I never thought that my vote was important. The 2013 Virginia Attorney General race has opened my eyes. Out of 2,400,000 votes the race was decided by less than 200 votes. And hopefully Virginia will now have an administration made up of men who actually want to have a government. But what if those less than 200 people had opted out from voting that Tuesday? Think of the atrocities.
One tidbit that came out of Virginia elections was the objection by the Republican poll watchers to an Every Vote Counts button that the Democratic poll watchers were wearing which the Republicans thought was a partisan sentiment and should not be allowed inside the voting precincts. The Republican efforts to limit the voting to only those that would be cast in their favor underscores the vital importance of getting every eligible person to vote.
I plan now to make my vote count by making sure everyone who agrees with what I think is important votes as well. I’m still going to vote in a crowd, but now I am going to create the crowd and take it to the polls with me.
So I will be volunteering to call voters not just in Illinois but across the country to tell everyone how important their vote is and report what the representatives in whose election they did not bother to participate have done in their name.
If everyone who voted in the last election bring 2 other people who didn't vote, the percentage of voters would jump from 30% to 90%.
But let's look at other methods for getting more voters voting.
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