By Kent Singer, CREA Executive Director
We take a lot of things for granted in this country. We just assume that when we walk into grocery stores, we’ll be able to choose from an incredible variety of fresh produce, meat and dairy products. We assume further that whenever we pull up to a gas station, we can buy as much gasoline as we need, to go wherever we want. We know that every morning when we get up to start our day, the lights in the house will come on, the furnace and air conditioner will keep us comfortable and most of us will have clean water to drink and food in the refrigerator.
We assume that in most cases the traffic lights will work and the roads, while sometimes congested and in need of repair, are still adequate to get us to our offices, schools or other destinations and back home again. While we’re moving about our communities to do our daily work, we assume that we are protected by our law enforcement officers and first responders and know that if we need help, it is generally just a phone call away.
We assume that our elected leaders and governmental institutions, while certainly imperfect, will continue to protect our freedoms and look out for those among us who need a hand up. Most importantly, we assume that our votes will count in local, state and national elections and that the leaders we elect are legitimately empowered to represent us.
But in order for our votes to be counted, we have to take the time to vote. Do you know what percentage of voting-age Americans voted in the last presidential election? According to a study done last year by the Pew Research Center, voter turnout in the United States in the 2012 presidential election was 53.6 percent. (That is 129.1 million votes cast for president out of an estimated voting-age population of 241 million.)
So, just over half of the eligible voters in the United States voted in the 2012 presidential election. And while that number is not significantly different than in past elections (and, in fact, higher than elections in years without a presidential election), it strikes me that it is still a shockingly low number and one that all Americans should seek to improve.
To that end, our national trade association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, came up with a program that it calls “Co-ops Vote.” The intent of the program is simply to encourage all Americans, and especially electric co-op member-owners, to register and vote.
I believe that in most electric co-op service territories across Colorado, our member-owners already have a much higher rate of civic participation, including voting, than most communities. Co-op folks are highly engaged in political matters and more likely than most to make the effort to vote. Nonetheless, if you have not registered to vote, you can go to the web page vote.coop and find out how to get registered.
Co-ops Vote is not a partisan political program. Neither NRECA nor the Colorado Rural Electric Association are advocating voting for any particular candidate or party. We are encouraging co-op member-owners to exercise their precious right of the franchise. Even if, like me, you are disgusted with the current level of “debate” in the presidential campaign, remember that you will also be voting for many state and local candidates who will be deciding important policy issues in Colorado for years to come.
It’s easy to take the simple task of voting for granted since it’s a right that is so engrained in our lives. From the time we are children, we learn that decisions are made in a democracy by a vote of the people and that the right to vote is as fundamental to our way of life as freedom of speech and religion.
This right is not recognized in many parts of the world. I am reminded of the images that came out of Iraq a few years ago where people who voted for the first time in their lives proudly displayed the purple ink on their fingers indicating they voted. Thankfully, we don’t have to risk our lives to exercise our right to vote.
We hope you will live up to the promise of Co-ops Vote and make your voice heard this fall. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, we only have this great republic “if we can keep it.” Voting is the one way to preserve our democracy.