Every four years, the whole world suddenly remembers voting. The presidential election is the news’s major story, social media’s central theme, and the campus’s fiercest debate everywhere. But when the uproar over national polls subsides, something of even greater significance slips under the radar: local elections.
This coming November, voters in Virginia will be picking a new governor, with candidates Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears on the ballot. This election will not only have national significance but also profoundly impact local areas. Yet, fewer people still turn out for state and local elections than for the big, glamorous presidential ones, as history tells us. That is an issue.
The local and state governments come up with regulations that influence your life directly. They develop your educational institutions, provide you with transportation, set the lowest salary, and make the final call on health services, law enforcement, and birth control. These decisions will, in fact, have an impact on your rent, transportation, and even your grocery budget.
It is natural to think that your single vote will not matter. Yet in smaller elections, it indeed does. Just about ten votes have decided some races for the city council in Virginia. That is the number of people in a normal friendship circle; no revolution there. When elections are unpopular and voter turnout is low, every vote matters more.
In the upcoming election, candidates Spanberger and Earle-Sears offer very different perspectives on Virginia’s future. While Spanberger has placed her campaign in the areas of family financial struggles and personal rights protection, Earle-Sears has highlighted school choice, jobs, and energy policy.
All of these issues are concrete; they will dictate living, working, and studying costs in this state.
No matter whose side you are on, the real challenge is whether you will cast your vote or not. Not voting is not the same as being neutral; it is giving up. It is allowing other people’s choices to influence the character of your community.
Young people are usually unwilling to vote in local elections, thereby missing the best opportunity to make a difference. The states have a say in all the matters concerning student loan forgiveness, the public funding of universities, and the rights of women to have an abortion.
If college students were voting like the older demographic, they would have the power to change Virginia’s political landscape. Our generation can actually dictate the agenda instead of being its followers.
Voting is not only about who will be the next president. It is also about who will govern our state, your city, and your school board. These are the people who will enact policies that will directly impact your daily life.
Amid complaints about the poor state of roads, unaffordable rents, and unfair regulations, voting is one of the least challenging yet most impactful actions a young person can take.
So, with the gubernatorial election approaching in Virginia, keep this in mind: your vote only counts when you make it known. Democracy does not operate in default mode. The default mode should be participation: yours, mine, ours.
If we do not vote in our communities, then we cannot complain when they no longer listen to us.