Why Should You Vote?
By Tyler Huff
That’s probably a question that you’ve either often heard or often wondered yourself.
First, let’s get some history on voting in the United States.
In 1789, the first U.S. presidential election took place. George Washington won that election and voting has been a commonplace method of expressing one’s political conviction(s) since.
Over the years, suffrage, (the right to vote in political elections), has faced many hurdles. For example, the most widely-talked about enfranchisement movement has been the United States Women’s Suffrage Movement, which lasted primarily from roughly 1848, (with the Seneca Falls Convention), until 1920 when the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified.
African-American men gained the right to vote in 1870, technically. However; it took until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before most African-Americans could register to vote.
Why should you vote?
If you are a legal U.S. citizen, you should vote for a couple reasons:
- It is your right as an American citizen. But, not only is it your right, it’s your duty.
- If you don’t vote, you don’t have a voice. People who don’t vote do not have a right to complain when things aren’t going the way you think they should go.
Bottom Line: If you want to voice your political opinion, then register to vote and go do it.
No matter which ideologies you ascribe to, go do the deed. In most places it doesn’t really take that long.
