For the past year and a half, I have been told how exciting it is that I finally get to participate in our democracy. Knowing that I had the privilege to be heard, I started to pay attention. I educated myself on the political climate of our country. I was always taught to examine what was going on around me and come to my own conclusions about how those issues should be addressed. I began to prioritize what mattered to me, and by the end of the election season, I was fully passionate about the decision I was about to make. So on October 10th I sent in an application to receive an absentee ballot for the state of Georgia since I am currently attending school in South Carolina. Come November 8th, I had still not received a ballot.
After calling my county’s election supervisor, I found out that my ballot was mailed on October 17th. I was baffled. After talking to the supervisor, I learned that the reason I didn’t get the absentee ballot was simply because it was sent to the wrong address. At first, I thought this could have been a mistake on my part; maybe I made a typo when filling out my new college address. After checking the application I filled out online, I realized this was not my mistake. The Board of Elections put my address down incorrectly, and because of this, I was stripped of my first-ever voting experience. I was really troubled by the fact that I didn’t get to vote. I felt guilty. I wasn’t just some college student who didn’t care if it was Trump or Clinton who won. I had an educated opinion. I had a passionate opinion that I was unable to express.
I thought that my experience was an isolated situation, but when I shared my dilemma with my peers, two of them told me they didn’t receive an absentee ballot either. Two. If I knew two people, in the small circle of eligible voters that I know across the nation, then how many others were denied their constitutional right, simply due to government incompetence? (I should mention that these were just the friends that I actually discussed this with which was a very small number).
I am not going to express my reaction to the election results or who I would have voted for. That doesn’t matter because this is not a partisan issue. This is a matter of many voices, not just mine, that were not heard Tuesday night. And frankly, everyone should be outraged about that no matter their political leanings.
I’m not writing this as a call for change, because in all honesty, I do not know how this happened. Mail screw-ups happen all the time, it is just a shame that it happened with something so significant. I am not saying one vote would have made a difference, but it is much more than one vote. I was denied the opportunity to participate in our democracy even though I fully intended to do so. And that leaves me unbelievably heartbroken. My heart also aches for the many others who did not get their ballot. Many of them were probably college students like myself and most likely very excited about finally becoming active citizens in our country. If this happened to anyone one else, I am so sorry. I will say this: we may not have gotten a voice in the voting process this year, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay silent. We can still be a part of American democracy by standing up for what we believe in. When there is an issue that infuriates us, we will speak out. We may not have gotten a vote, but we can refuse to be apathetic citizens.
