This is in response to a recent column by Ken Trainor titled, “Why Americans don’t vote,” [Viewpoints, Oct. 7, where he asked the question: What can be done to light a fire under the electorate? Coercion was one of his suggestions. I suggest defiance.
My husband and I have two favorite bumper stickers for our car. One reads: “If you aren’t outraged you aren’t paying attention.” The other states: “Vote while it is still legal.”
Trainor mentioned several reasons why people don’t vote: lack of time, a scheduling conflict, lack of interest, not liking the candidates, forgetting to vote or wondering what’s the point of voting at all.
How would non-voters feel if they no longer have the choice to vote? Their rights are gone. Their voices won’t be heard at all.
Voting impacts all aspects of our lives. Every American citizen needs to wake up to the reality that an authoritarian regime wants to keep us from voting. Or, if we vote, they want to sabotage our elections by blocking eligible voters from counting.
So for me, outrage is the appropriate response to reality. I am guided by a sense of defiance. Voting is an act of resistance. That’s why I aim to vote early (starting Oct. 19), take family and friends with me, and vote for democracy. And I dare anyone to try and take this away from me.
Why? I vote as though democracy depends upon it. Because it does.
Anne White
Oak Park