Get out to vote; we can only save ourselves

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no one is coming to save us.

I feel like the main character in the scene at the Great Lake in “Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.” Harry is being overwhelmed by Dementors on all sides, and yet he sees his potential savior across the lake. He waits. And he waits. And he waits for his savior to arrive, but no one comes.

We have been waiting, too, waiting for our savior each election cycle. We are seemingly pressed down on all sides and at times it feels we will be overwhelmed. In Kentucky’s primary election this year, only about 23 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. This means that only 1 in 4 registered voters in our state bothered to go to the polls.

There is no one coming to save us.

There are so many issues to consider, candidates running on all points of the spectrum. The issues include affordable health care, funding for public education, social safety-net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as opioid addiction and criminal-justice reform. We have been bombarded by campaign ads for months; newspaper headlines scream at us; and our mailboxes are overrun with so much propaganda that the recycling bin is filled to the brim.

I am grateful to live in a country where we have the right to vote, to cast our ballot for our preference. At high decibels, both sides declare, “Take our country back! Save democracy!” Turnout is pretty evenly divided among the two major party candidates, which means this: About 30 percent of people make choices that will govern the majority.

Think about that. Just a bit over one-fourth of the people make the choices that will govern 100 percent of the population.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Voting and Registration Supplement, in 2016, 61.4 percent of the citizen voting-age population reported voting. If we remember that the election results were nearly 50-50, that means 30 percent of the country chose our current president.

In the 2012 presidential election the numbers were a little better, but not by much.

Those we vote for in this election cycle will have power over information collected in the 2020 Census. These numbers are used to allocate federal funding of more than $600 billion as well as to possibly redraw congressional districts that often leads to gerrymandering.

According to the National Council of State Legislatures, “some groups have been undercounted historically. Often known as ‘hard-to-count populations,’ they include rural communities, communities of color, immigrants, young children and low-income people.”

I have marched. I have protested. I have canvassed. I have ranted on social media. I am tired, but also energized, because I realized some time ago that I have to do the work. I cannot wait for someone else to vote. I don’t have the luxury of thinking my vote doesn’t count or casting a protest vote for someone who has no chance of winning. Election Day is coming.

Do you remember how Harry Potter’s story ends? Spoiler alert: Harry must save himself. He is the only one who can. And he realizes that he knows he can do it because he has done it before.

Election Day is upon us. As citizens, as voters, we must accept the role we all play as a critical part in our democracy. We must save ourselves. Make a plan. Grab friends and family. Go to the polls and vote. We know that we can do it because we have done it before.

It has been said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 5:39 PM.