If you own a smartphone, participate in any form of social media or have a few friends who pay attention, you should know about the upcoming Presidential election. For those of you who live under a rock, type '2016 presidential election' into Google, and you should be able to catch up with the rest of the world. And I do mean world. You may think this only involves America, but Kim Jong-Un endorsed Donald Trump. Kim Jong-Un endorsed Donald Trump.
I've already booked my plane ticket to Africa (so I can find my people) if he wins.
Anyway, whether you're scared, clueless or just want to see what I have to say, here's a bit of advice for the upcoming election.
1. Do not write in Bernie Sanders (or any other candidate).
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Why not? We can change America. We just have to get everybody to write in Bernie Sanders." Unfortunately, you're wrong. How many of you were paying attention in the 2000 election (or at least know about it)? To refresh your memory, George Bush was the Republican nominee, Al Gore was the Democratic nominee, Ralph Nader was the Green Party nominee. (There were a few others running as well, but these three are the most important for today). Is your memory refreshed? Okay, now to the spoiler effect.
By definition, the spoiler effect is when a third party candidate takes votes away from a major party candidate, resulting in a win for the opposition. In 2000, the spoiler effect took place where there were votes (from those who were more "liberal") for both Ralph Nader and Al Gore. This resulted in, to make this as mathematically simple as it can possibly be, Nader taking 25%, Gore taking 25% and Bush 50%. (Here are the actual numbers.) Does this make sense? You could give me 120 reasons as to why Bush won, and you could be right. It's possible that Bush would have won either way, and with everything that happened with the Florida recount, this particular election is always one example of an interesting and controversial election in my political science classes.
Nonetheless, the spoiler effect happened. It may have only taken a small 3% of Al Gore's votes, but it resulted, ultimately, in Bush's win. Again, I'm not saying Bush couldn't have won in another circumstance, but in that particular election, the spoiler effect spoiled whatever could have actually happened had Ralph Nader decided to run in a different year: we'll never know.
If we encourage people to write Bernie Sanders in, this will take away from votes that would typically go toward presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton. There's a very small chance that he, or anyone else, can manage to gather more votes than Clinton during the actual election if people were to write him in when he wasn't a consistent winner during the primaries. Whether you're with her or not, if you don't want Donald Trump to win, I suggest praying that Bernie Sanders wants to try again in the next four years, and checking the box next to Clinton's name.
2. Vote. Vote. Vote.
My last tip: Vote. I don't care if you're moving to Canada, Africa or the Czech Republic after the election: vote! Don't simply complain about Donald Trump's xenophobia, or Hillary Clinton's overuse of the woman card. Don't complain about what's wrong with our country. Don't have pointless arguments with people who believe in something that you believe is completely wrong. If you want to make a difference, vote. Encourage your friends to vote. Tell your 95-year-old grandma to vote. Whether you know it or not, every vote counts. If you don't believe your vote counts, why are there always so many recounts? If you don't believe your vote counts, then what's the point of voting? Because if your vote doesn't count, then mine shouldn't count and then Matthew's vote should count and Shanna's vote shouldn't count either right? Why have a democracy that allows people to have a voice if your voice doesn't even matter? I can tell you're having a hard time coming up with an answer to some of these questions so let me help you out: it does matter. Your vote could be that .2 percent lead that we need. Who knows?
But hey, before you vote, be sure to do some research. Just because your dad and your dad's dad tells you that this person is the right person, that doesn't mean that you should believe the same.
Also, be sure to register before it's too late. Find your polling place and voting information here.
Happy Voting!
