WHY VOTE

WHY VOTE

Why vote? The. often used answer is “Why toother. My one vote —doesn’t amount to anything any— way.” The fact is that your ‘one vote* carries the weight of five. You are voting for yourself and four other people in Virginia. This statement, no doubt, needs a little explanation.

Statewide elections in Virginia draw out less than twenty per cent of the potential voters (men and women over twenty-one years of age) and presidential flections only” slightly” more thari that number. Thus it is easy to see that with only one-fifth of the eligible citizens of the State taking the trouble, or feeling the responsibility of voting, it makes every vote just five times as important. Are you willing to be numbered among -the four people, who will let a fifth person decide, who you will have in office, and what type of * taws and government you will live under? The system of having all the decisions made for the people seems to be working very well in Russia (for those in power.) I’m sure none of us want that sort of thing here, but we are making little effort to see, that a small-mi-— nority does not make the decisions for the majority.

Only between 30 and 35 per cent of all Virginians over twenty r one have taken their voting privileges and responsibilities seriously enough to qualify themselves for voting. Of this small percentage less than half turn out at the polls on election day. These figures are nothing short of amazing and should serve to stir us from our complacency and change ourepractice of letting the few make the decisions for the many. So far we have been lucky but trusting luck too far always ends in disaster. _On Tuesday, July 15, a Democratic Primary, for the selection of a candidate for the United States Senate, will be held in Virginia. The way we can best support the man of our choice and the principles for which he stands, is to turn out and give him the biggest vote possible, whether we think he needs it or not.