This Is How Important Your Vote Could Have Been

It’s been quite a week for the United States.

We are all reeling from the results of what is poised to be one of the most divisive presidential elections in American history. An election in which Americans allowed a candidate with no prior political experience and evidently no respect for marginalized groups assume the highest office in the country.

While Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote, our country’s elections are not decided by the combined votes of the people, but rather the votes of the Electoral College — an outdated and arguably undemocratic organization (for more on the Electoral College read Kiana Melendez’s article here).

So Trump won. And the fact of it is that we were so close to preventing it. A map of the election results compiled by the New York Times shows that key battle states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all had Trump winning by less than two percent of votes. This is devastating to realize, especially considering the fact that each of these states had a relatively large count of Electors that could have guaranteed Hillary’s success if she had won them.

Now, let me be clear- the only people that are directly responsible for a Trump presidency are the people who voted for Trump. Period. But the fact is his presidency was incredibly close to being prevented, and the abysmal voter turnout was a factor in allowing this demagogue into office.

This graphic on MSNBC caught many viewers attention as it shows that nearly half of our country did not even vote in the election. Who knows how valuable these votes could have been, especially in the states where Clinton was only behind Trump by less than two percentage points.

I understand that many Americans feel disenfranchised by the country’s political system, and they certainly have a right to feel that way, but the only way to have a voice in changing that system is to vote. Voting is a civic responsibility — to be an active role in selecting the leadership of your country and to help determine the direction your country takes is essential for any citizen.

This election cycle had two of the most disliked presidential candidates in history, and therefore many people did not vote, but a candidate does not have to espouse everything you believe in for them to earn your vote. Voting is a pragmatic choice for your country. It is not an expression of your most closely-help political and social beliefs.

It’s also important to realize the impact that third party voters had on this election. If you take a look back at the election map you’ll see that votes for Gary Johnson took up a significant number of many state’s votes. In fact in Florida, where 29 electoral votes were at stake, Clinton would have only needed about 1/10 of the votes for Johnson for her to win.

It is reasonable to feel misrepresented or distrustful of the establishment political parties, and I agree that our country’s two party system is not the best- but these votes were inexcusable. This election was monumental, any voter could see that, and there is essentially no way a third party candidate can win. This election was too important for a “protest vote” because in this cycle we were unfortunately put in a situation where we needed to make a survival vote.

I am incredibly disappointed in the choice that our country has made, and in the end I can only blame Donald Trump and the people who voted for him. But despite all of this, I cannot stress how important is to not only vote, but to vote intelligently. An informed and active electorate would never have allowed the election to go this way.