#or using their vote for something equally stupid like writing in a dead fucking gorilla??

[little-lee-stories]

Alright guys, you know that I’m not feeling 100% able to talk about politics these days - and especially not on election night when so many of us are biting our nails and watching the numbers come in and seeing states flip from blue to red to blue to red every other minute (oh? Just me, you say? Fair) - but I feel like this is really important for everyone to hear:

Regardless of who wins, regardless of who you voted for, one thing this election is going to prove is just how important our individual right to vote is. Like I said, I’ve been watching the numbers - I’m seeing gaps of less than 100,000 votes in multiple states, and gaps in the 200-400,000 vote range for many more. I’m no voting analysis expert, but from the look of the past...4 hours? As initial vote counts have come in across the country, I can say with certainty that the number of states that are “sure wins” for either candidate this election can be counted on One Hand.

Yes, Electoral College and vote counting won’t be finished tonight and blah blah blah. We can talk about all that another day when I’m not so anxious and it’s not the middle on the night for everyone. My point is - most presidential elections have less than a dozen “key states” or “swing states” to win an election on; this election so many states can flip on a dime and the counts are so close that out of all 50 states, there are far more we’re unsure about than ones we are. And that is huge, it is mind-blowing, it’s even kind of terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

That said, I’ve heard often, especially this year and in this particular presidential election, people questioning how much their vote actually matters. What difference does one person make? Why should I go to all the trouble? Why not just abstain from voting if it’s majority rule? And not just from strangers or people angry about the American voting system, this year I literally heard it from the mouth of coworkers, neighbors, and my very own partner.

So I say to all of you, to every single American that sees this (only because I would never say things about voting in countries that I am not from and don’t know as much of their voting laws and practices as I do the USA’s): this is the year when you find out how much your vote really means, regardless of who you voted for or when and where you voted. I have been in/heard of towns - that’s right, those places big enough to be called something but too small to be important - with populations bigger than the voting gap that are in some states this year. Yeah, I’m saying if One Single Town with a population of, say, 99,000 decided not to vote as a collective this year, that could literally change who all of Florida (29 freaking votes, guys. Florida is in like, the top 5 for states with the most votes in an election, if not then definitely top 8) votes for this year. 100,000 or 200,000 seems like a much smaller number now, yeah?

Well guess what? That’s how close this shit is. That’s what this ENTIRE ELECTION is boiling down to. And now that it’s happened once, how can anyone think things are going to “be normal” ever again? Even if YOU don’t realize it, there are people all over the country watching those numbers tick up and seeing it for themselves - Every. Single. Solitary. Vote can make a “life or death” change in a close election. From this point forward, every election could be this close, because people who didn’t even think it was POSSIBLE before now know their vote can turn the tide.

I don’t want to hear a single American ask if their vote really “matters.” Not after tonight. Not ever again.

Because tonight proves it does, and it will, up to and until the American voting system itself is changed, and even still it most likely will thereafter. Your vote matters. Because your vote becomes ten votes, becomes hundreds of votes, becomes hundreds of thousands of votes, literally turns the tides and changes history. Never forget that.

#politics #venting #that said just to make my stance clear: #fuck t*ump and every single person that votes for him #also fuck people who don’t vote for stupid reasons for good measure #it’s one thing to be unable to vote #mentally physically or because of a corrupt system #but it is literal BULLSHIT to throw away your right to vote on the basis of ‘I don’t really like either candidate so 🤷‍♀️’ #BULL #SHIT #there’s a reason the right to vote is considered a RIGHT and something that symbolizes FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY in America #and to have idiots just giving up their right to vote because they don’t really like either candidate?? #or using their vote for something equally stupid like writing in a dead fucking gorilla?? #(I’m looking at you 2016) #that’s spitting in the fucking face of like. EVERYTHING you idiots think is good and important in America #veterans? fought wars so you can vote. you’ve officially spit in their face #politicians or political views you believe in? voting makes them happen. you’ve spit in their face #THE SUPPOSEDLY GREAT FOUNDING FATHERS AND THE IDEALS THEY BELIEVED IN WHEN THEY CREATED OUR COUNTRY?? #IDEALS THAT YOU IDIOTS HOLD UP AS SIGN OF ‘TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTISM/IDEALS’?? #IDEALS THAT YOU TAKE FOR GRANTED OR MISINTERPRET FOR YOUR OWN SHITTY AGENDA? #SPIT. IN. THEIR. FACE. #SHAME ON YOU FOR WASTING PRIVILEGE YOU WERE BORN INTO THAT OTHERS WOULD KILL TO HAVE #AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO BOOT I HOPE YOU ASSHOLES FALL OFF A CLIFF OR GET RUN OVER AND DIE BECAUSE YOURE TOO STUPID TO LOOK WHERE YOU STEP #*clears throat* sorry about that guys I did not mean to rant in the tags #I just feel very strongly about certain things is all