A son asks why he should vote

When my son reached voting age, he had a question for me as he cast his first ballot: What difference does it make if I vote?

Granted, I've never voted in an election where my one vote determined the outcome. I've lived in Nebraska and Alaska, however, places that have such small rural towns that tied elections aren't unusual.

In 2018, for example, a mayoral primary race in Mitchell, Nebraska depended on a coin toss. A village in Alaska used a gold coin once, just for the symbolism. I guess if you sat those elections out, you might be kicking yourself.

But let's face it, we're seldom "the decider." Especially not in a big election.

That's not the point, I explained to my son.

When you pull back the curtain, you're not really alone in that booth. The spirits of Mickey Schwerner, Andy Goodman and James Chaney may linger there. They were the trio of young civil rights workers who labored in Mississippi for voting rights for Blacks, and were murdered by white supremacists.

You might feel the ghost of Congressman John Lewis, who as a young civil rights worker was beaten at the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma.

And although the pictures you see of suffragettes marching for the vote sometimes make them look like old-fashioned middle-class ladies, we forget that many women were beaten, ostracized and imprisoned, all for the right to vote.

No, we're not alone in that booth. We are the recipients of a sacred gift, the holders of a sacred duty. As Catholics whose justice teachings rely on providing for the common good and the dignity of all human persons, we're duty bound to vote.

Here's the scandal of the 2024 presidential election. No, it wasn't fraudulent. The U.S. has extremely secure elections. Just as Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 election, so Donald Trump fairly regained the White House in 2024.

The scandal is in the numbers of people who exercised their right to vote. These figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau: in the 2024 presidential election, 73.6% of the voting age population was registered to vote. That's 174 million people.

Of those registered, only 154 million, or 65.3% of those eligible, voted. So over a quarter of our eligible population failed to register, and of those registered, 20 million stayed home. Now, that's a scandal.

Although every election is important, the ones coming up may be pivotal. There are many in this country who want to make voting more difficult. This has nothing to do with security, as our voting system is among the safest in the world. We must defend the right to vote and make it more accessible.

Our president made the comment that mail-in voting should be done away with, and that we are the only country in the world that allows it. In truth, many countries, like the U.K., Canada, Germany and Australia, have forms of mail-in voting.

Our president said Vladimir Putin disparaged mail-in voting. Are we taking election advice from a dictator who has never once allowed a fair election in Russia? A man who faced international scrutiny after his most valiant opponent, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned with a Soviet-developed nerve agent and later died in a Russian prison?

We are heading into a celebration of the birth of our nation, a nation founded on principles which inspired people everywhere. We've never been a perfect country. The specter of slavery and discrimination hover over us still. But the spirits of those who fought to overcome injustice live with us as well. And they beckon us into that voting booth.