As you know (if you aren't living under a rock), the primaries for both the Democrat and Republican parties were last week for New York State. And as we also now know, Hillary Clinton edged out the voting for the Democrats, while the ever-interesting character (to say the least) Donald Trump, reigned victorious for the Republican party.

This has been one of the craziest elections in recent memory, and although I didn't vote in the primary I got thinking about the election in November. And more importantly, I started thinking about my individual vote, and how much it will actually influence the result.

I'm sure we've all seen the flyers saying "Your Vote Counts" and "Your Voice Matters," but it got me actually thinking, does it really? And I would say it doesn't.

Think about it. First of all, New York State is basically a Democratic state due to its majority. If you are a Republican in our state it is almost impossible for your voice to be heard because you're simply outnumbered! Now, I'm not necessarily siding with Republicans on this, but I'm just simply stating my opinion that the way voting is set up within the states and country is rather unfair.

Now, in the case of the primaries this past week, I think it is even more apparent that your individual vote kind of doesn't mean much. In the primaries, most of the decision on who "wins" that state is how these people called "super delegates" are allocated. These super delegates are completely out of the reach of the voting population and is arguably one of the main ways a candidate can win a state in a primary.

Then we get to the main election, where it comes down to the 'ole electoral college to determine who the winner will be. If you missed your history class in high school, this form of tallying results in which each state has a certain amount of votes based on how much representation they have in the government, with New York specifically having somewhere between 28-30. Rather than having a popular vote (whoever gets most votes wins), we have this crazy electoral college that makes the process even more complicated.

And with that, it diminishes the meaning of the individual's vote. In the electoral college system, it comes down to blocks of people and states rather than individuals. So for example, because NY is primarily Democrat, someone who is voting Republican's vote essentially won't matter.

It's just interesting to think about much your vote actually matters when you step into the voter's booth. Next time you see all those posters, Snap Chat filters, and so on that say your vote matters and counts, think about how much it actually does. And let me make this clear: this is not me saying don't vote because it essentially doesn't matter. This is me saying vote because it is your civic duty, but just think about the effects of what you're doing as you're doing it.