Voting On Issues Big and Small

As some of you know, the political season is once again winding up. President Obama recently filed reelection papers while speculation and confirmation continues to whirl around other candidates. Our country is guaranteed an exciting 2012 election.

But, the day that the President filed his papers, what was I up to? I logged onto my computer to file papers of my own and printed an absentee ballot. But it wasn’t for the 2012 elections. Instead, I found the absentee ballots for my hometown and registered as an absentee voter for the School Budget Vote. I’m not going to take this blog post to debate the values of voting in your hometown or in your college town, that is an entirely different issue for which I also have strong feelings about and would gladly address at another time. Instead, I want to stress my love for voting in general. 

I love voting. In fact, I think that I was far more excited to turn 18 and to vote then I am about the prospect of turning 21 and being allowed to legally drink. I’ve voted in Budget Votes and sent in an absentee ballot for elections last November and so I was terrified that I might miss out on the opportunity to vote in May because I recently made plans to be out of town. No fear, it isn’t too late to register for an absentee ballot.

So how does this fit into a passion blog? Basically, I was really excited about still having the opportunity to cast my vote and wanted to share it with the world. You can make the argument that a single vote doesn’t matter but, when it comes to local issues, they really do. Even though my friends laugh because I am so into this small election I still wanted the opportunity to have a say. I really do have strong feelings about the issue and voting is just one of many ways that I like to make my feelings known. I guess that this is something that I don’t want to loose as I get older. There are stereotypes about the energetic youth going crazy for what they believe in versus the comfortable, older adults in our country. I love politics and voting and I want to be involved with the 2012 election in whatever way I can. I never want to loose my fire for debating politics and defending my views. It starts with voting in the Bethlehem New York Budget Vote and is truly endless.