Opinion: You Shouldn’t Vote If…

Let me start this off mildly defensively. I know people will flood the comments to tell me to stop telling them what to do. I understand, but hear me out first.

Voting is an amazing right we have had in this country throughout history. As a woman, I am very lucky I have never experienced a time in which women were not allowed to or discouraged to vote. However, this idea to vote just for the sake of voting is scary. Voting because a celebrity is telling you to "Rock the Vote" is wrong.

Today is election day so everyone is hitting social media encouraging people to vote. This makes me cringe. Every time I see a post telling their friends to make sure they get out and vote, it raises some concerns. Are we just encouraging ill-informed votes?

Last night, my mom was telling my father who he should vote for in the school board election. I quickly interjected how wrong this is. No one should vote for someone because someone else tells them to. Voting is a private affair that, if so chosen, stays between you and the booth.

In this day and age, everyone has all of the information you would ever need to make an informed decision. There is more information on the internet than one person could ever consume in a lifetime. There is no reason why someone could not do a little bit of research in order to make an informed vote. Voting blindly takes away the legitimacy of voting.

Social media seems to be breaking down the voting system. The pressure to vote, just for the sake of voting, has intensified in this social media age.

Find all voting information and poll locations here.