Cynicism and apathy in American elections is like a disease. Americans look at congress and are disgusted (if the 8% approval rating is any guide), but too often it seems the response – especially among younger would-be voters – is not to work hard to ‘throw the bums out’ but instead to throw up one’s hands and walk away from elections entirely. Voting is one of the issues that I am most passionate about as, with my knowledge of history, I see it as a long battle to expand the franchise to as many people as possible, with a rearguard action always fighting to restrict access to the polls in order to hold onto power without actually serving the interests of the people. For those who want to restrict voting access, apathy and cynicism are their most deadly weapons and, no matter how many people I encourage to vote, and no matter how intelligent those people are, I often hear, “Why should I even vote, it doesn’t matter anyway!” Well, here are some reasons your vote does matter!

90,682,968 Americans voted in the last midterm elections in 2010. That’s out of an estimated 235 + million eligible American voters, or just under 38% of the eligible population. To contrast that, 53% of American voters cast a ballot in the 2012 presidential elections. The 2010 election cycle may not be a good guide as to what will happen tomorrow, but it is a good baseline because no midterm elections ever come close to matching the slice of the populace that votes in presidential elections. 2010 is also valuable as it was the first election after the Citizens United decision, and it is estimated that over $3.6 billion was spent on campaigns in that cycle, and it’s hard to believe that less has been spent in 2014 than in 2010 (numbers won’t come out until after the elections), and just in using the 2010 numbers, it means that even if YOU don’t value your vote, enough money was spent on the 2010 elections to equal over $40 for each vote cast. You may think your vote is meaningless, but obviously there are people and corporations with a LOT of money who believe otherwise and if they are so willing to part with at least $40 per voter, then they certainly think it has value.

Besides the congressional elections, there are also referendums, governorships, and state legislatures that will be decided tomorrow. Washington D.C, Oregon, and Alaska will all vote on whether to legalize and tax marijuana; Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all have a raise in the state minimum wage on the ballot. Colorado and North Dakota have extremely strict anti-abortion “personhood” laws on the ballot, while here in California medical reform and prisoner reform will be voted on. And if you don’t think your governor matters, consider that in Texas, Rick Perry (for purely political reasons) chose not to expand Medicaid as part of Obamacare and therefore around 1 million Texans who would qualify for Medicaid have been left without any health care. It is very unlikely that Democrat Wendy Davis is going to win tomorrow, meaning that those 1 million Texans living in poverty will continue to struggle without the health care that is available to them, but in your state you might be able to make the difference because you never know how close the election will be. This brings me to another number you should consider when deciding whether to vote or not: 537. That’s the amount of votes that separated George W. Bush and Al Gore in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Avoiding all conspiracy theories and comments about the election result being stolen for the moment, the fact remains that in an election that saw 105 million Americans cast a ballot, it was less than 550 votes that meant we had President Bush and not President Gore

You really need to go and vote tomorrow, and make sure everyone you know who is eligible votes too! Voting is too precious a right to waste when so many states around the country are making it harder for people to vote, and when so many nations around the world go even further than that. Voting doesn’t solve every problem and your vote tomorrow won’t change everything, but in a nation where Blacks once risked (and often lost) their lives to vote and where it took women over 130-years of struggle to get the franchise, it is not just cynical not to vote, it is cowardly. So get out there and vote, honor our proud democratic tradition, and make the choice to be an active participant in our society and not a spectator