Election Day 2010

How a prisoner is treated in the Island jail. How a wind power developer is greeted at the state house. How much sales tax you pay. These are only a few of the ways real individual human beings will be affected by decisions made in Tuesday’s election.

Amazingly few people will show up to mark a ballot — this country has not managed to get sixty-five per cent of eligible voters to cast their vote in any election since World War Two. And this time around, we will not be electing a President; without a high-profile contest we have a worse turnout record.

Sure, it makes for some inconvenience. You have to register. Then voting day is on a Tuesday, a workday for most people, though the polls are generally open from seven in the morning until eight at night. It’s an extra stop. There’s some thought involved, if not some actual research, in trying to make the best decisions. It’s hard to get interested in all the choices on the ballot.

But make no mistake, these decisions will affect the quality of our lives, whoever it is that votes to influence them. We may not have time to be as involved as we would like in all the issues on which we have an opinion. But we have time to take that most basic step, to vote.

Voting ought to reflect the will of all our citizens, not just the wealthy or the cranky. In some countries eligible voters are fined if they do not show up at the polling booth (a few get around this by casting a blank ballot). In other countries, social services are not honored for those without a stamped voting card, while elsewhere nonvoters face difficulty getting a passport or driver’s license.

Here in the United States, we boast of our freedoms — arguing it would be undemocratic to force people to vote — yet too often we fail to take the most basic care of our democracy, which is casting a ballot of our own choice. As part of our bargain, American citizens must pay our taxes, show up for jury duty and ensure our children are educated. We are not required to vote. And despite our increasingly strident, noisy opinions about our government, many people do not show up to vote for those who represent us in government office. At midterm elections, a majority of us do not bother. What’s American about that?

Voting is neither a privilege nor a right, it’s a duty in a democracy.

Please remember to vote on Tuesday.