Why? Your vote is yours. It is personal. It represents your choice; your voice.
For millennia before the American Revolution, people struggled to have their government hear them. Even today, the majority of people in this world suffer under oppressive governments where they have no voice. Your right to have your say in how this government should be run has been hard fought and won. And you get to use it as you seem fit.
That concept seems to be under attack from many fronts this year. The attacks stem, in part, from the imperfect system we have. Over time, the US electoral system has developed structures and rules that give the two major parties immense advantages. So it is assumed that only by voting Democrat or Republican that your vote has any chance of winning. And it is only through winning that your voice can be heard.
To be clear, your vote is an imperfect way to communicate to your government. We do not live in a pure democracy. We will in a representative republic. In our system, we elect people to represent us in making policy and legislative choices. Your vote, therefore, can be difficult for our government to interpret. Are we choosing a particular person, a political party, a particular issue? Or are we making some other statement?
Into this system, you have people who say that if you are not voting for one of the parties with the institutional advantages, you have no chance of winning. Therefore you are throwing your vote away. Worse, they assume that the major party opponent of their chosen candidate must be defeated. So if you are not voting for their candidate, you are only allowing the other to win. It is this line of thinking that leads people to insist that one candidate or another deserves your vote.
While a two party system ensures that one party or another controls the system to make laws and implement policies, it has major flaws. Our government addresses a large number of complex issues. In order to win the mechanisms of government in a two party system, the parties must form alliances among those various issues. One result is that some issues get drowned out.
Another flaw stems from the way candidates for president are chosen. The primary system gives disproportionate power to the fringes of each of the major parties. It also gives an advantage to candidates who can manipulate name recognition and popularity.
And so, many voters are left dissatisfied with the choices the major parties feed us. As we express our desire to reject both choices, we are met with the voices who insist that our vote must be used to win. Our vote must therefore be constrained to the two choices the parties gave us.
But this view is limited and parochial. Our republic is more than merely a mechanism to institute major rule. It is designed to protect minority rights. It is a system set up to ensure that fundamental freedoms, such as speech, association and religion, are protected even if they are in the minority and unpopular.
And it is in this system that we exercise our vote. In the privacy of the voting booth, the vote is personal. It is a reflection of our autonomy. It is a celebration of our freedom to choose. It is a memorial of those defended our democratic ideals.
Honor those who died and sacrificed to protect this precious right. Revel in this incredible freedom. Exercise this right the way you see fit and tell your government how you think things should be run. Don't be intimidated by those who insist that their candidate is entitled to your vote. Vote your conscience and your conscience alone.
By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
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