By: Chelsea Ware

Every morning when I read the news while drinking tea I am bombarded with articles about the candidates running in the upcoming elections. What’s even more surprising than the latest candidate scandals is that not only do many millennials not actively follow elections, but they don’t vote either. I would probably be able to pay off my student debt in a month if I had a dollar for every time I heard a young person say that they don’t plan on voting because it doesn’t even count or matter. Worse yet, I hear people say that they don’t vote because they don’t know enough about the candidates.

But it does count and it does matter. Student debt, health care, gun control — these important factors are all influenced by whoever is elected into office. Our votes help make that possible. While the Electoral College does have a large role in the presidential election, so do we.

The majority of the time, electors in the Electoral College vote for the candidate who has received the most votes in their particular state. Additionally, some states even have laws requiring electors to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in the state they represent and other electors are mandated by pledges to a specific political party. While there have been times when electors have voted contrary to the popular vote in their state, it is not as common as electors voting in favor of the popular vote.

In the time it takes you to find something on Netflix, you can run a google search on the presidential candidates and what they stand for. In an age when many citizens in other countries are still fighting to voice their opinions, it is important that we appreciate the fact that we have the constitutional right to exercise ours. So please inform yourself and vote. I promise Netflix will still be there when you are finished.