Before I start this thing, let me tell you this: Yes, you can vote without a social security number. Both voting and drafting are usually registered for when applying for a drivers license. There may be other methods, but that’s what I’m most familiar with.

I was raised around people who believed it was best to stay out of government as much as possible. They are corrupt, was the general consensus. There is no controlling or reforming corruption. Your best bet wasn’t to meddle and play in their games, but to keep to yourself as much as possible, and keep as far away from them in a way that you were free and they didn’t know about it.

I agree with this to a large extent. But the naive, hopeful side of me decided to try and vote, to try and speak. I had a desire to spread goodness beyond my circle. And so I registered for voting and wrangled half of my family into it, including my parents.

Funny thing, I’m pretty sure my vote has never counted. It’s kinda like my voice, my opinion, my beliefs. They are nothing without the majority to back them. And yet the majority is mostly corrupt, and a single vote isn’t going to sway such a group.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and tear you.

Matthew 7:6

“Wait a minute,” you might say. “Voting isn’t wasted. Every vote does count. It’s our American duty to vote. If you don’t vote you don’t care about America. Your voice is embodied by your vote.”

Let’s tear this apart.

• My voice is not captured even in part by a vote. I can do so much more for America than filling in the correct circles that correlate to my affiliated party.
• Did you know most women never even cared to vote, even when men made them accept this “great responsibility”. Those women were still Americans. Those women still cared for and loved America. Voting doesn’t mean you care. There are many voters who simply vote because they are told, too, and they know nothing nor care to know anything about why or even whom they are voting for.
• Voting doesn’t count. I’m not necessary anti-electorial votes. But at the end of the day, large scale, our votes don’t count.
• Voting may be exciting? But really I do not understand the influx of selfies with “I Voted” stickers on social media during elections. You voted. So what? So did many, many others. Now what are you doing about that vote … what are you doing in general?

So why do I vote?

• I vote, not because of some arrogant belief or even because of some humble piety, but because I want to. Simple as that. I like having a voice, even in inconsequential things.
• I cherry-pick vote. If I didn’t research it, if I don’t like any of the candidates, I simply don’t vote. Sometimes I vote because my dad says a certain person is good. Sometimes I vote because a friend said a certain person is good. I vote out of trust. Mostly, I like to vote on bills. If anything, I think that the back of our ballots are the most crucial and essential. Most of those bills are laws that need to be a resounding “no”.
• I vote out by desire, not by duty.

There are countries that have mandatory voting. There are those who refuse to vote out of selfish reasons such as “it stresses me out” or “politics just aren’t my thing”. But mandating doesn’t change these people’s hearts. It simply causes more people to vote blindly. It isn’t until people realize that stress can only be regulated by facing it, and that politics make up lives, that people will choose to vote by desire and go beyond voting toward thought and deed.

And it is only when we value the thought and deed above the scribbled vote that voting will ever regain its former glory and power. And that is why I applaud those who are so busy acting, refusing to entangle themselves in the worthless bother of voting.

“But if you do care about your voice, won’t you vote?”

Not necessarily. As my dad has said:

If I believe the system is corrupt, if I believe my vote doesn’t count, if I believe that I can help in other ways, then I am consenting to whatever the outcome may be. If I vote for no-one, then I have not cast my lot with them. If I vote, even no, then I have participated in their game and played by their rules and thus am obliged to every repercussion, even those I feared and voted against.

And is this not half of what it means to vote? We fear a great evil, and so we vote for the “lesser evil”. In either situation, by voting, especially when we are not advocating for what’s right in any other avenue, we have said evil is justified and that we accept it.

“But,” some may argue. “Is not any vote we make, anything we do, nothing but a lesser evil? Is there really a viable righteous vote? Does there exist the perfect candidate, the person who we can wholeheartedly agree with and stand by in every matter?”

Of course, no man is good (Mark 10:18). Of course there is not a perfect person to fill any office in the sense that we will agree with them 100%. And yet …

There is a large difference between voting for the lesser of two evils and voting for someone who differs to our personal beliefs and stances.

To vote for the lesser of two evils is struggling and failing to vote against something you hate.

To vote for someone who is a tad different from yourself is simply voting for a human who you believe will protect your rights and treat humanity civilly even though you both attend different churches (if at any churches) and have mild, inconsequential disagreements.

The line between these two isn’t even fine; it is a vaping gap.

But the surest sign that you are voting for the lesser of two evils rather than a good man with a few contrary beliefs is this: you justify, overlook, or even idolize this lesser evil because it saved you from something worse.

I won’t even name names. I’ll trust my readers to find this gap for themselves, to know the difference between evil and men who differ.

To sum up:

• I vote by desire
• I vote for those who I can stand by, even if I debate with them
• I never vote for evil of any sort
• Sometimes I don’t vote
• Voting is not my duty
• Voting is not my voice, even in part
• To vote is to play a game; play wisely

Do you vote? Why or why not?