Elendil’s Journal Questions GOTV

I have never understood all of the fuss about getting people to vote. I understand why political campaigns have a vested interest in GOTV efforts. They want to maximize their chances of winning and that is understandable. But I don't understand the pleas by anyone else to get the general public out to vote.

By the time you leave school you should have a pretty good understanding of the importance of voting in America. If not then our education system has failed. Since I don't think our educational system has collapsed that far, it is safe to say that 99% of Americans understand the right to vote.

But if that still isn't enough to motivate you into exercising that right, then please don't vote! The way I look at it is quite simple. If you can't take a small amount of time out of your day to exercise one of our most important and fundamental rights we have as Americans, then you probably don't know who the candidates are or what issues are being debated. If you don't know either of those then your vote is going to be for all practical purposes random. And if I wanted a random way to select governmental representatives then I would be clamoring for a lottery system instead of elections.

So you are not going to see me hand wringing over the fact that only 15% of the voting public is going to vote today. In fact, I am happy that those who don't care are staying away from the ballot box.