Every vote counts, so bring on the vote

It seems that an election year can bring out a lot in people, especially a presidential election year. The steadfast emotions that tie us to our political views are on high alert and come out in ways they might not the rest of the time.

And that is fantastic, it’s representative of the United States’ great liberty, freedom of speech. But how can you practice your freedom of speech and not put into practice your freedom to participate in a democratic society by casting an election vote?

Although more people will probably vote this election year than the last, it will still only be around 50 percent of the voting population.

More people vote in presidential election years than they do in other election years. Statistics from infoplease.com show that more than 50 percent of the of-age voting population vote in national elections, whereas less than 50 percent vote in the other years.

It’s a concept that has always seemed a little odd to me. More people have invested themselves and their political spectrum of ideals into the nation as a whole than they have in their close to home communities. I’m not going to lie to you, I am, of course, one of those people. It’s hard not to be when everything you hear from the radio, read in the papers or watch on television is about national politics.

Well, maybe not everything, but definitely the most accessible things.

In fact, I didn’t cast a vote in any election until 2008, when I was 26. I think the reason I didn’t vote before then is because I was more interested in myself than anything else and I didn’t really stay in tune enough to understand any of the issues.

I voted in the presidential election that year because I, like many other young voters, thought it was important to weigh-in, and I tried to keep up-to-date on things. I watched the debates and listened to talk-shows rattle on about the issues. A higher percentage of the voting population voted that year than in any election year since 1968.

Opinionated celebrity television talk show hosts on “news” stations and know-it-all political experts still say one of the reasons Obama won was because of his effective get-out-the-vote campaigning.

According to infoplease.com 56.8 percent of the voting population turned out to vote in 2008 or about 132,618,000 people. The 1968 Richard Nixon versus Hubert Humphrey election saw 60.8 percent of the voting population turn out or about 73,212,000 people.

I kept up my voting record in 2010 and voted in the general election in Missoula.

I actually followed who was who for city council and senate seat races. Part of the reason was because I was at the University of Montana Journalism School, but I also began to realize how much more of an impact that I can have as a voter in a city of 40-60,000 than I can have in a nation of over 300 million.

A J-school acquaintance of mine helped canvas for Caitlin Copple, who ran for a Missoula city council seat in 2010. He knocked on hundreds of doors in just one neighborhood. He said that one neighborhood could turn the outcome of the election depending on how they voted.

She ended up winning the election by 185 votes in a city ward where 3,000 people voted.

What I’m trying to say to those who say they can’t, is as a voter you can make all the difference.

It’s even easier to vote than it used to be with the advent of absentee voting for people who reside in the county still, but don’t want to wait in line or move on election day, and you can register late.

I remember trying to register to vote when I was 22 or 23. I was approached by a get-out-the-vote campaign table affiliated with one of the major parties. But I didn’t want to register with them, I wanted to register as an independent voter.

I registered, or so I thought, and for some reason never got registered to vote.

Although voter registration is officially over, you can still late register to vote by going into the county elections office up until the night of the election.

Find out more about voting in Flathead County by visiting www.flathead.gov/election/.