In this day and age there are very few legitimate reasons to miss voting. Being on your death-bed, that’s one of them.

The argument that “my vote doesn’t matter” is NOT one of them. Your vote does matter.

This democratic system was founded with you in mind. Okay, maybe not specifically you, but you as in the people. The system has its flaws, true, but the one of the biggest flaws is not the system itself but the voters. The mindset that each vote doesn’t matter or that you abstaining from voting makes a bigger difference than if you did vote, is absurd. You aren’t being a rebel by not voting. You’re being lazy.

You are allowing that system you hate so much to fall further into despair by not marching into the nearest polling place and at least attempting to vote in the most competent candidate for the job.

A measly 40 percent of those eligible to vote actually vote during midterm elections. Meaning there are more people who didn’t vote than did.

From 1972-2012, people ages 18-29 were 15 to 20 points lower in their turn out rates than those 30 years old and up.

I understand at this age not a whole lot of us are interested in politics, but you should at least be familiar with those in office and those who are running for office. Being an uninformed voter is just as bad as not voting.

It is our responsibility to make as informed of a decision as possible. If that means doing a little work to find out more about the candidates, then do so.

No, it may not be how you wanted to spend an hour on a Tuesday evening, but it is worth the effort.