Yes, you should get out and vote
A protestor holds a sign demanding voting protections at the Voting Rights March on Jan. 15, 2022. (Josie Gonsalves for Public Square Amplified)
NEWARK, NJ—With only a few days left before Election Day, you’ve likely seen flyers or door hangers, received texts or phone calls, and seen the same political ads tens if not hundreds of times. And so it’s important to step back and ask: Why are people pouring all this time, energy, and money into getting you to vote? Not the collective you, the singular you, the you reading these words right now.
Part of the answer to that question is about power. Politicians tend to want power. It’s not always why they got into politics, but it often becomes a focus of their time in office. They can’t maintain that power without getting re-elected, and many offices have short enough terms that they’re running a campaign for re-election from the moment they first enter office. Political campaigns tend to center, unsurprisingly, around the candidate. Sometimes the campaign will minimize the personality, and speak more of the platform—the vision of what that person will do if elected. But most of the time the candidate is the one delivering that message.
It’s hard to get away from the focus on and the power of individual candidates. But elections, and government, aren’t supposed to be about individual power. They’re supposed to empower communities to self-govern. They’re intended to be a way to bottle up the power of the people, their needs, but also their hopes and dreams, and incorporate that into a system of governance. Elections should be the mechanism for a community to gain representation, to move forward, to force their government to see them, and, more importantly, to hear what is important to them. To shape government in their image.
On many New Jersey general election ballots, this year and every year, there is no vision, there is no community presence, there is no representation. Many candidates are running unopposed, literally or effectively because the town or district is so partisan that while there might be an opposition candidate, that person has no path to victory. Often when this happens the candidate that is ensured a win is an incumbent, the elected official already serving in the office. But many sample ballots and paper or mail ballots will have two sides, and if you vote in-person on a voting machine it will have some races off to the side or the bottom. These are more local races, Mayor, Board of Education, Town/City Council, other local boards or committees. Sometimes these races only have as many candidates as there are open seats. Other times there may be a huge number of candidates for only a single seat. In some cases a small, locally organized Write In effort might be enough to get someone you know elected.
New Jersey politics and ballots can create a feeling that your vote doesn’t matter. And I’ll break one of the prime rules of organizing here: sometimes it doesn’t. I’m supposed to tell you “your vote is critical, every election.” I’m supposed to tell you “if you don’t vote, you give up your voice,” or worse “if you didn’t vote you can’t complain.” I’m not going to lie to you, for some positions on the ballot, in some years, your vote doesn’t matter. When the County Executive in your deep blue county is seeking his or her 5th re-election, your General Election vote probably doesn’t matter, and Primary Elections are a topic for a different piece. But it’s not always possible to know which positions, and which years this is true.
I know that for many people, voting isn’t easy. You can’t take time off work. You need to take your kids with you, or get someone to watch them. You show up before work, but the polling site hasn’t opened because the machines aren’t there or the volunteers aren’t there, or they can’t figure out how to get the machines ready to receive votes. You go to the polling site you’ve had for years and there’s no one there. Maybe if you’re “lucky” there’s a sign on the door telling you to go half way across town to the new location.
New Jersey has made some improvements here and now has early voting. In addition to Vote By Mail, you can vote in-person, from Oct. 29, 2022 to Nov. 6, 2022. But you’ll need to check your County’s early voting locations because most polling sites are only open for Election Day. Many people don’t know about this, so even if you don’t need to vote early, tell your friends, your co-workers, or people at your kids’ school or your house of worship. New Jersey also lets you sign up permanently for Vote By Mail without needing a reason. It may be too late for this election, but you can sign up today and use Early Voting at your convenience in future elections. And we must still get Legislators to pass the same-day registration bill, so when voters do manage to show up to vote they're not disenfranchised despite their efforts.
But you can also ask your boss if people at your company can have a few hours of paid time off to vote, or at least let people take unpaid time without punishment. Encourage faith leaders or school leaders to talk about the logistics of voting, tell people about the new Early Voting, encourage people to ensure they’re registered and what their polling site is this election. Tell your elected officials and voting rights advocates what might keep you from voting. Make sure your neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family members have a plan to vote in this election. You can offer to help them find their polling location, a Vote By Mail drop box, or get them registered to vote for the next election.
We should all be registered to vote, and we all need to try to vote in each election. Ensuring that you are still registered and creating a plan to vote are important habits to establish and maintain. Read the directions carefully and vote for the allowed number of candidates, for each race, on the front and back of your ballot. Take your time, do your research, try to ask candidates or neighbors questions if you’re not sure who to support. Your vote, your individual vote, does matter. And who knows, maybe someday that vote will be for yourself.