Voting At 30

News Commentary: Three Reasons Why Everyone Under 35 Should Vote

Truth is, everyone of eligible age should vote. But these days, with the American democratic landscape shifting – or deteriorating – beneath our collective feet so rapidly, voting may not be an open option in a decade or so.  

First, our national two-party system is led by people on the right who are embracing extremism and autocracy and people on the left who are aged in their 60s and 70s. In order to get younger, mentally balanced people who respect democracy in office at the national level, they need to be voted into local offices now. They need to gain experience in governing, build a name. And their supporters – you – need a relationship with them in order to hold them accountable.

This election year, the county council will adopt five new members and the county will send several delegates to Annapolis. This is the perfect time for young voters to identify and vote for leaders who will work well with the positive trends their predecessors leave, pivot against the gaps and have the wisdom to know the difference. These are the elected officials who will potentially lead Maryland and the nation in 10 years. These are the leaders whose decisions today’s thirty-something voters will live with when they reach their 40s: sending children to college, paying off their first mortgage and trying to determine health care for their parents. They will need capable, balanced experienced leaders who deserve to hold office.

Second, three is still a number worthy of its mythic status. The 2020 election, the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election will be a trilogy of political theater in American history. The 2020 election and its drippings have set in motion a course-splitting fork in the road for the nation.  Will the United States, a fragile democracy by all accounts, struggle forward as such or continue to move toward autocracy? The next two election cycles may well set the course one way or the other. Those who are in eligible position to vote now are not only privileged with the opportunity to possibly shape the course of the nation, they have the responsibility. Young voters should not sit this out.

Third, every vote counts. If your vote doesn’t count anyway, why indeed are so many people working so hard to make sure it doesn’t count? Why are authorities, such as those in the state of Georgia, willing to make it illegal to bring a glass of water to voters standing in long lines to vote? Why is such a law necessary? Does the glass of water hold some inherent power to alter the mind of the voter? Will water empowered voters take over a polling station? More likely, water-deprived voters will become discouraged on long lines, or even ill, and not vote. After all, it’s considered inhumane to deny a dog a drink of water – but not a voter in the state of Georgia.

Some voters will argue that Americans went all  out to vote President Biden in office (in spite of COVID-19), deliver a Democratic congress and still there is no national police reform, voter suppression is on the rise, abortion rights have been denied and open carry gun rights have become the law of the land. What’s the point?  Democracy isn’t a light switch. The Civil Rights Movement took 10 years (from Rosa Parks in 1955) to reach the Voting Rights Act in 1965. On the right, it took nearly 50 years to end Roe v. Wade. The point is, the struggle for democracy and equality is never-ending because there will always be people willing to take them away from others.

Young voters in their 30s today have the opportunity to steer the next elections in a way that will protect their own futures. They should decide that they are worth it.