Voter apathy sucks balls. OK, so people choose not to vote for whatever reasons, then complain about who wins. To those people I say, “Wait, what?” Seriously, what?!?

In the 2000 presidential election, around 30 percent or so of 18- to 24-year-olds voted – not very good. Especially when you consider that about 75 percent of senior citizens voted. The American Association of Retired Persons is the largest interest group in the United States and we wonder why Bush and Kerry are focusing on Social Security and Medicare. Why would they talk about issues for young people when they think we won’t be voting?

During the entire get-registered-to-vote rush in front of the UCen, I – insert apology here – was one of those people asking if you were registered to vote for the umpteenth time. Well, one pleasant, lovely, little gal, when asked if she had registered, said, “Fat chance,” and walked away. Wait, what?

It’s not the first time I’ve heard stuff like that either. I mean, come on, people! I don’t give a crap who you want to vote for – well, that’s wrong; I do have a preference, but at least you’d be voting, right? – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about voting in general. Voting is cool. When you turn 21, you can legally drink, so you’ll probably get soused off your ass. So, how come when you turn 18 you don’t get crazy ’cause you’re allowed to vote? OK, bad analogy, but you get the point.

Just for the halibut, here’s a hypothetical situation: You think it’s stupid to vote, so you don’t. Then, come Nov. 3, we find out who wins the election and you complain because the person you hoped would win didn’t.

Stop whining. You have no right to complain because you didn’t vote. If you voted and your choice lost, you at least attempted to get that candidate into office. But if you don’t even vote, you didn’t try at all, so you have no grounds to complain about it, right? That makes sense logically? I think so.

Even though the Electoral College is actually what decides an election, voting is still a big deal. If you assume one vote won’t matter, imagine how big a difference it would make if everyone who thought that didn’t vote. That’s a lot of people not voting.

There’s less than a week left before this election. If you somehow escaped the register-to-vote vultures by the UCen, it’s too late. But if you are registered, please just take a couple of minutes to look up the candidates, propositions and measures that’ll be on the ballot. It won’t take that long. And it’s a good time-filler for when you’re trying to get out of writing a paper. Please, please, please? Voting is way cool. We do it for a reason. And remember what that Puffy Father guy said: “Vote or die!”

Claire Goodman is a Daily Nexus copy reader.

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