Make It Count

Sometimes, it's a shot in the dark trying to address young people in our editorial columns. The way they get their news and opinions isn't always through traditional media, and that's if they even follow the news at all.

We hope that at least in the case of The Times, we've helped address that with a focus on the sports they play and the animal showmanship they display at the fairs and their other academic and life accomplishments.

Plus we're on the web and we're on Facebook, so we know we have a fair chance at reaching some young people with our mes- sage of the week: VOTE!

We know: you just turned 18 the last few years and perhaps you moved and haven't registered yet. It's not too late and it's not too difficult. There are lots of options to do so online.

We feel obliged to make this call in the final weeks leading up to the General Election because we've spotted an alarming trend.

As of last week, a third fewer Washington residents have registered to vote this year compared to the first nine months of the 2008 presidential-election year, according to the Secretary of State's Office. The decline is especially pronounced among young people, who appear to be the least likely to register.

According to the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., what's happening here is happening elsewhere in the country. The center found that the percentage of adults 18 or older who say they've registered to vote is lower than in at least the last four presidential-election years.

So listen up for a minute, for here's the problem when you don't vote: you let other voters and other generations make deci- sions for you about the direction this country should go in and at some point in the future when things aren't going the way you had hoped, you may kick yourself for not participating in this small way in the political process.

Naturally, as a young voter, you have more at stake in the out- come than any of us for the choices and outcome for long-term policies are distinctly different at every level: candidates for presi- dent, governor, local officials and state initiatives.

Do you want to help decide how the country brings down the national debt you and your possible future children will be saddled with? How about setting the policies that help protect the environment you will live in longer than voters of any other age? How about helping us figure out how to best ensure there will be Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits when you reach your 60s and 70s? How about the more immediate question of government policies that will determine the affordability of a higher education? Do you want to help decide if marijuana should be legalized?

The list of issues that affect your future goes on and on.

We know that the political process can be disheartening, partic- ularly in a system that isn't precisely based on the one-person-one- vote structure as other democracies are. We do, after all, still have something called the Electoral College that can set up a difference between the popular vote and the electoral vote.

All of us voters, whether young or old, also have reason to wonder what kind of influence our vote actually represents in a world where so much influence is paid for with campaign dona- tions, lobbyists and special interest groups. Lastly, in the case of young people, they may well question if politicians even care about the things they are interested in. That too is a fair point.

But to seek refuge in any of those arguments to avoid even the most basic involvement in the democratic process seems cynical and defeatist. Doing this essentially puts everybody else in charge of your destiny.

We do have to caution, however, not to make an even bigger mistake - to vote without being well informed, as objectively as possible, about the policies of the candidates and initiatives in an election. And that brings us back around to the other habit that has fallen out of favor with many young people: following the news, whether it's through the newspaper, television, radio or the Internet.

Simply following the notions of other voters isn't going to make you a voter who can make independent choices or make decisions that are right for you. Only you can do that.

So, here is our message again: read and vote. Your future de- pends on it.