Voting is the foundation of any functional democracy. Everyone should have the right to vote, even your grandfather who still believes that rock-and-roll music is the devil.
It is a strange thought, but their vote should count the same as yours, your political science lecturer or even the President of Texas A&M University Steven Tallant Ph.D. That is what democracy is.
The problem is, frankly, that we don’t vote.
According to the U.S. Census only 27 percent of people aged 18 to 24 in Texas voted in the 2016 general election.
To put that in perspective, a report by the Yale program Climate Change Communication stated that 30 percent of Americans believes that climate change is not man-made.
To combat that willful ignorance we need to vote in all elections, especially the one coming up on Nov. 6.
Unfortunately, the deadline for registering to vote, Oct. 9, fast approaches.
This can cause problems because Texas is a voter ID state, which means that in order to vote you must have some form of state-issued identification, not including your student ID.
According to a study by Professor of Political Science at UCLA Matt Barreto, Ph.D. and Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico Gabriel Sanchez Ph.D., African-Americans in Texas are almost two times more likely to lack state-issued voter ID, while Mexican-Americans are nearly two-and-a-half times as likely to have one. It’s just another one of those things white people seem to be more likely to have; like a sunburn or a senatorial candidacy.
Setting aside the impact of voter ID laws on minorities, registering to vote can be very simple, or it can be a bureaucratic nightmare.
Either way, it takes time.
In Texas there are a few ways to register to vote. A couple of those methods are online forms that you mail to the courthouse or visiting said courthouse in person.
However, the deadline for the online application has passed so you will have to go to the Kleberg County Courthouse at 700 East Kleberg Avenue in Kingsville.
I realize that asking someone to go somewhere in 2018 is a lot ask. You’d rather sit at home and like your best friend’s “no-filter” picture on Instagram.
However this election is an important one.
Specifically, Texas will decide, among others, who will be their senator, governor and attorney general.
If you want someone who represents your ideals and not some puppet for corporations get up, go out and vote.
