Letter to the Editor: Why Young People Should Vote in Municipal Elections

Why should young people be involved in local elections? We aren’t worried about our pensions (yet), we’re only just starting to become parents, and odds are, we have enough on our plate that the last thing we want to worry about are our town’s roads and bridges (though these are a big issue).

The reality is, voting is incredibly important to preserving our quality of life and ensuring that our values and opinions are accurately reflected in our political system. I think back to the 2008 election. My younger sister was on the fence as to whether she should register to vote, even with all the hype and excitement around the election. This was hard for me to understand, as voting was, in my book, the most awesome thing you could do.

My sister didn’t register until the last minute, but she did register because there was an amendment on the ballot that would have significantly hindered her access to reproductive healthcare. She didn’t really care who was elected to the presidency, or who represented her in Congress. For my sister, it was one issue that year: would she be able to access reproductive healthcare? This amendment was defeated, but it taught me an important lesson: campaigns may end, people may drop out of races, but fighting for my rights and the rights of everyone I knew was going to be a lifelong commitment.

The reality is, most young people are like my sister. We tend to get involved when there’s something really exciting going on, and then our enthusiasm peters out and by the time our municipal or state elections roll around, we are using all that enthusiastic energy on football or our newest hobby (who’s up for a game of squash tomorrow?). I have to accept the fact that not everybody’s days are taken up by reading through the state budget, going to policy meetings and writing op-eds while watching The West Wing.  These are all probably pretty low on most people’s list of “fun things”. However, being at least knowledgeable about local and national politics is important for many reasons. If you use healthcare in our country, or drive on the roads in your town, or send your kids to public schools, the people that you did or did not elect to public office are going to have an impact on your life, because they are making decisions that affect your life every day. If you’re able to sit down and dialogue, if even for a few minutes, about issues that are important to you, this can have a lasting impact on the decisions that our elected officials make. I’m fond of saying that democracy is like putting two mirrors facing each other so that they reflect whatever is between them infinitely. Public servants are on one side and citizens are on the other (though realistically, the lines between these two entities are often blurred). If you put apathy, anger and arrogance in between them, that’s exactly what you’re going to see. However, if you put enthusiasm, commitment, and cooperation in between these two mirrors, suddenly we’ve got a well-functioning democracy.  Citizens and elected officials share the burden of creating good policy.

There’s an election on November 5th. Take some time to get to know the candidates. If you haven’t done so already, get registered to vote, and elect candidates that reflect your values. But don’t stop there. Make sure that the people that you elect continuing to hear your voice.  You can also run for office. There isn’t a person in the world who represents your values better than you do. The next generation of great public servants is being elected right now, and you might be one of them.

- Windsor Locks Young Dem