Why my vote doesn’t count

I wish I had the enthusiasm about voting that some people have. Unfortunately, I am very apathetic towards the voting system we have here.

The way the system is set up with the Electoral College, you don't necessarily need to win the popular vote to be president, as was seen in the 2000 presidential election. As much as I hear people saying that “your vote does matter,” this is simply impossible. In a national election, there are far too many people voting to make your vote of any importance.

I believe the main reason that voter turnout is at a low level is political parties. For example, during the 2004 election, when pretty much the majority of the state of Texas was voting for Bush, voting for Kerry would have been futile. This is the case in other areas as well.

The two-party system does not work well. Of course, we have third parties, but they are rarely taken seriously by most people and barely get five percent of the vote if they're lucky. Increasing the number of candidates from two to even four would increase voter turnout.

However, local elections are better, and more important, these I'd vote in and support. Elections at the town level are more personal, since they usually have an impact on the individual. A popular issue that is on the local ballot for Irving is whether or not to allow the sale of alcohol.

By all means, I don't hate democracy — I just hate the current system we have, which promotes a bipartisan election system. To me, the Electoral College isn't there to make voting easier, it's here to keep the average citizen from infl uencing the presidential election, and to make it easier for someone in power to remain in power and get re-elected.