WHY VOTING MATTERS

Because it's necessary.
By Rachel James (Treasurer/Writer) 

It’s election season, as can be ascertained from all the political discourse of late (as well as the new Crazytown design for fall term!).  I woke up with a jolt on Thursday morning with the realization that it was Primary Day!  I walked over to my new polling place (thank you 2010 census and redistricting) to discover that at 10:30 in the morning, I was only the 9th person to be voting.

Needless to say, I was a little disheartened.  I know lots of people only vote in the presidential elections and not during primaries.  But I take my right to vote very seriously.  On my eighteenth birthday, while many kids get some extravagant coming of age gift, I awoke to a simple voter registration form my mom had left on the dining room table.

**Pretty**

Voting for me is a very emotional experience.  I tend to put a lot of solemnity and gravitas into the ceremony of casting my ballot.

It may also have something to do with the giant lever, which I miss greatly.
Voting should not feel like taking the S.A.T. 

I think of the founding fathers, these imperfect men who wrote this perfect document known as the Constitution of the United States of America (its perfection found in the fact that it is malleable and open to change).  I think of the men and women who fought and died so that the people the founding fathers left out of Constitution would be allowed their right to vote.  And lately, I’ve been thinking about the people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and many other states who have voted for years but may not be able to vote in this year’s election due to absurd voter ID laws (a.k.a. a solution looking for a problem).

But most importantly, I think of my grandmother, whom my cousins and I referred to simply as Gram.

Sgt. Lana Marjorie Lacey, USMC 

Gram was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.  She was born in 1920, the year the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.  And before she died on June 24th, 2008, the last vote she cast was in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton.

So please don’t tell me primaries don’t matter.  Please don’t tell me elections don’t count.  And please don’t tell me your voice is not heard.  If you vote, your voice is heard.  

Even with a vibrato like Glynis Johns.

 

RACHEL JAMES is a native New Yorker and theatre baby. Her plays have been produced by The 52nd Street Project and Starfish Theatreworks. She currently makes a living as a Broadway treasurer.
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