Why Should I Register to Vote and Why Should I Vote?
The answer to this question is simple:
Voting gives you a voice. Voting makes you a part of the decision-making process at the national level.
If you don't vote, you are letting others speak for you. When you let others speak for you, you give up the right to complain when things do not go as you would like. When you let others speak for you, you give up the right to make a difference.
When you let others speak for you, you give up your most important and powerful tool - your voice and the right to have your voice heard.
In The Bahamas, we are fortunate to have fair and democratic methods in place for the selecting of political representation. To not take part in the process or to give in to a feeling that our opinion doesn’t matter, would be to waste the incredible power that we have a right to exercise.
The power of a single vote is staggering. It is our right to stand up and be counted. And the way we do that is by casting our ballot.
Why is the youth vote important?
You may be asking yourself, "Why should I bother to vote? Does my vote count? It's not likely that there's going to be a tie and my vote will be the deciding vote. The same people will win whether I vote or not. So why should I vote?" These are valid points. However, we should also remember that elections are frequently won by small margins. In 2002 several constituencies were won by fewer than 25 votes, one by as few as four (4) votes! So in The Bahamas, in a very real sense, EVERY VOTE COUNTS.
But there are other reasons to vote and your vote counts in ways you that you may never have thought. Most importantly your vote influences what politicians do, what policies they develop and what programmes they support.
Even registering to vote sends a message.
The government collects statistics on what age groups are registered to vote. If you are registered you become a potential voter. When the word gets out that record numbers of young people are registering to vote, politicians get the message and will become more interested in what's important to young people.
So, it helps you and it helps young people everywhere if you register to vote.
We have a secret ballot so the government doesn't know who you vote for, but they do know whether or not you voted.
The government (and all political parties) track information for statistical purposes to determine how many young people are voting as compared to other age groups.
That way politicians know what age groups to target in order to win elections. Politicians target certain groups by developing policies and programmes to meet the interests and needs of the group.
The fact that you even voted adds one more vote to the number of young people who participated. And that adds influence for the youth vote.
Statistics show that older people are the most reliable voters. They have the highest percentage of voters of any age group. And because of that, older people tend to get what they want from government.
Politicians learned long ago that when they’re running for public office, they had better be protecting the interests of older people because older people vote and if they don’t meet the needs of that group they get voted out.
On the other hand, young people don't vote in large numbers and so it's not worth a politician’s time to put a lot of effort into courting the young vote.
That doesn’t mean that youth aren’t important to politicians seeking election. But many politicians have learned that while they have been focusing on the young voters their opponents focused on the older voters, and their opponents have often won because older people turn out to vote every time.
Voter ‘turn out’ is very important because the people who turn out and vote are the ones that rule. If you don't turn out, if you don’t vote, you lose.
If you show up and vote, and get your friends to show up and vote, you are doing a service to the interests of young people.
The more young people show up to vote the more politicians will get the message that young people are a political force to be reckoned with and the needs and interests of the youth will become more important to political candidates and to elected officials.
They'll be more interested in what you need once they realise that they need you to win elections.
As with everything in this world, if you want to get what you want, you have to go after it.
You can't count on anyone else taking care of you.
So if you want to make a difference and be somebody, get registered and go vote.
