Election Day

My shirt says "Vote or we're sending you somewhere you don't get the right to."

I'm that nerdy, nerdy kid who wanted to vote from the time she was in second grade.

I remember walking from the playground to Mrs. Rexall's classroom with my friend Alicia in the year 2000, when President George W. Bush was up for his first presidential election. Alicia said she would vote for him because his last name was Bush, and squirrels are cute with bushy tails.

General second-grader logic.

As I grew older, I loved learning about the political system--how America is a representative democracy, how the President is chosen by the electoral college (not directly by the voters). The words "suffrage movement" and "political efficacy" give me happy, giddy, butterfly-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach chills, and I know I'm probably alone in that.

But, as you've probably guessed, I want you to feel that way.

I want you to want to vote.

I will not accept "my vote won't matter" or "my vote will be wasted and cancelled out by everyone else who votes" as an excuse. There's no room for pettiness like that in my generation.

Political cartoon by Nick Anderson, because 2/3 of eligible Texans don't vote.

I vote because I believe it indicates I am a responsible, thoughtful citizen who appreciates having the privilege of voting. I desire to see my country succeed, so I research the candidates who will potentially run it at a state and federal level, research the facts candidates share, and vote when the time comes--and I'm telling you to do it, too.

Research the candidates.

I'm not going to tell you, the internet, who* to vote for. I don't think that's proper to do in an online forum such as this--but I will tell you to check out all of the candidates. Watch debates on both sides of the aisle. Google their names and stances, and check out their websites. If you're overwhelmed, you can find out which politicians you side closely with using the I Side With quiz (which grossly simplifies politics, but hey--it's better than nothing.)

*and while I said I'm not telling you who to vote for, I am going to tell you to please back a politician who is decent, exhibits a loving character, and has experience in politics on some level. I feel this all ~should~ go without saying but probably needs to be said anyway.

Research the facts.

Did you know that President Obama has deported more undocumented immigrants than any other president, ever? Or that net migration from Mexico to the US is below zero? Ok, one more: Did you know that the unemployment rate is hovering below 4.9%? It's been continually dropping since February 2014--which is a good sign for the economy.

Maybe these are statistics you don't care too much about. That's okay. But in order to be a well-informed voter, you need to know if what the politicians are saying is true. My favorite tools for fact-checking are PolitiFact, which live-checks debates; and the AZ Central fact check, which looks at local news. If you live outside Arizona, your local news organization probably has something similar.

Get registered and join PEVL.

This is probably the gosh darn easiest part of voting. If you live in Arizona, you can do it online. And look, I even gave you the link. And here's the link again. Go ahead, just click here and do it. It takes an incredibly short amount of time to register to vote, and you can even join the Permanent Early Voting List or "PEVL." PEVL is great because you'll receive your ballot in the mail before elections so you can fill it out and send it right on back to the ballot counters without even putting pants on.

Get your friends to register.

Once you've caught the bug and understand how important it is to vote, don't shut up about it. Keep talking. Explain to your friends how awesome you feel now that you're making at least a small difference in the way your country operates.

Get your friends to register. And if that's not enough and you want to really make waves, get complete strangers to register.

Vote.

When the time comes--be it the Presidential Preference Election or the Presidential election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November--go out and vote. Cast your ballot! Let your voice be heard!

This can pretty much all be summed up by a quote from one of my favorite script writers (Aaron Sorkin) and fictional Presidents (Jed Bartlet): Decisions are made by those who show up. So do your civic duty and show up.