When I was 14, I wanted to vote.
There was a hotly contested school board race in my hometown and, because I was in junior high and because what the school board did had a direct effect on me, I decided that I needed to vote.
My parents, however, thought otherwise.
It wasn’t that they weren’t sympathetic, but they were all about following the law – and the law said 14-year-olds can’t vote. I tried negotiating with my mother, but she stood firm.
So, instead, I went for Plan B. Because I worked as a flunky at the local weekly newspaper, I invested a large portion of my weekly salary (paid at the grand wage of 75 cents per hour) and purchased an ad urging the residents to vote for the candidate who I thought would have the most positive effect on myself and my classmates.
My candidate lost.
But people remembered the ad. And it was at that moment that I decided the minute I could vote, I would vote.
A few years later, on my 18th birthday – the day I’d registered to vote -- I received a card from the school board candidate I supported with a clipping of the ad and a message congratulating me on my registration.
Since that time, I have voted in countless elections.
Sometimes my candidates won their races and on other occasions, they lost. But on every election since then, I have stood in line and kept a sacred promise to those who stood in those same lines before me. I marked a ballot and kept a promise that democracy matters.
This year is no different.
As America fights a global pandemic, struggles with racial and societal issues, and looks with weary eyes toward the future, the need for each of us to participate in the general election has become paramount.
It is this moment, this simple act of marking a line on a ballot, that unites this country. We stop being Republican or Democrat and simply become voters. We pause for a moment and flex our collective muscle, reminding those in power that the true foundation of American Democracy lies with those who cast their ballots.
Not every country is so lucky.
It hasn’t always been that way. In fact, it was just about a hundred years – that American women finally got the opportunity to mark a ballot – 144 years after the United States was founded.
That lack of access continues even today. Across the globe, billions are prevented from voting. In some countries, residents are threatened and even assaulted in an attempt to prevent their vote.
Why? Because a single vote is one of the most powerful weapons in the world.
Public votes have ousted the crooked and changed policies and programs and altered the course of nations.
It may seem like a simple act, but it’s not.
Voting equals power. And the fact that here, in Oklahoma, voting is so simple, underscores that power. The idea that the public gets the opportunity to express its opinion about how its government is function is vital and necessary to keep that government functioning.
Voting also gives a voice to many who might not otherwise have one. It’s the great equalizer, the voice from the mountaintop. The push back against the tyrant. Government officials, courts of law, and politicians of all stripes recognize the power a simple vote.
And here, in Oklahoma, voting is very simple. It’s as easy as drawing a line to the candidate or issue you’d like to support or oppose. And even when the ballots are filled and the lines are long, the actual act of voting only takes a few minutes.
Additionally, because Oklahomans had the foresight to design a voting system and went to great lengths to prevent fraud – the use of paper ballots fed into a computer that counts them – Sooner State residents have few worries when they venture to the polls.
On November 3rd, each registered voter in this state has the opportunity to help determine the future of their community, their state, and this nation.
Every two years, we are given the chance to wield democracy’s most powerful weapon – the ballot.
This year make sure you take advantage of the chance – because there are thousands of 14-year-olds out there who are watching.