Dear Editor:

The official numbers for the amount of Hoosiers who voted in this year’s November Primary were released on Tuesday. The turnout was very low. Of the 2,724,298 Indiana citizens eligible to vote; a meager 20.5 percent made it to the polls last week. In Kosciusko County we had 11,677 registered voters within areas that were holding elections and only 1,334 individuals submitted a ballot. That translates to a 11.4 percent turnout. I was never good at math, but even I can tell these numbers are very low.

Further analysis of these numbers sheds some light onto the shared discontent with our government. The common notion in a wide spectrum of the United States today is that our government as a whole is doing a poor job. Add to the fact that we continually vote in and out different individuals, and many of the same issues remain.

That way of thinking, I believe, is immersing itself deeply into today’s society. It is the idea that, no matter what we do or who we put into elected offices, our problems within our government (local, state, and federal) will never be solved. I theorize that is why we have such a small number of citizens going to the polls. Many of us honestly believe we will not make a difference by voting.

But the moment we begin to doubt our own significance within our system of government, that is the moment we truly lose. When the majority of us begin to adopt the idea that our votes do not matter; a small group of voters gets to decide who is elected. That being – 20.5 percent of Hoosiers deciding who to elect, while 79.5 percent chose to not have their voices heard.

Now one could use the argument that this was an off election year. No president was up for election. Neither was the governor or any congressmen. But that is no excuse to sit idly by, as a smaller number of Hoosiers call the shots for the rest of us. If we are to seek true transformation and reform in all areas, and at each level of our government, we must unite together and find the true leaders among us; and see to it that we use the one weapon we have to get them into the positions they need to be in. That weapon is the power of the vote.

Evan McKinley
Leesburg