I made my way back to my hometown over the Coolidge Bridge yesterday afternoon to cast my vote. I had a long enough break to take an hour out of my time and take part in Super Tuesday, the long-awaited day when nearly two dozen states vote in the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican nominations for the 2008 presidency. I felt accomplished as I finished making my selection in the booth at the Northampton Civic Center because I was doing my part in voicing who I felt would be the best candidate to push the country in the best possible direction.

My vote counts and my vote matters. Did you do the same? If you did, hats off to you; you’ve given yourself and every other supporter of your favorite candidate, Democratic or Republican, a better chance at seeing the individual you want to run the country win. If you didn’t, you’ve still got a chance over the next coming months to redeem yourself and do what every eligible college student should do: vote.

Why vote? What’s the big deal if you, one single individual, stay home on the next voting Tuesday? Because the reality is that election after election, the percentage of eligible youth of the ages 18 to 29 who actually register and vote is much smaller when compared with other demographics. In 2004, only 52% of eligible youth voted in the Presidential election, compared to 70% of voters over the age of 30.

This doesn’t mean the youth market isn’t a force, but only that it isn’t a main motivator in campaign platforms and pre-election advertising. Campaign managers target hotspots centered around the older generations of the country because older people show up at the polls at a larger rate than us college students. That’s why social security is something politicians protect. Young people don’t vote, so if they cut college funds and raise tuition, so what? Why cater to a group of people who don’t vote?

Are you choosing not to vote because you don’t like the choice of candidates? Are you worried that Hillary Clinton’s centrism is just for public consumption? Is Barack Obama’s political resume too thin in your eyes? Does Mitt Romney’s Democratic past during his Massachusetts days concern you, and does John McCain’s opposition to tax cuts turn you away? Don’t let the views and stances each candidate takes on each issue turn you away from voting. Don’t pretend there’s no way you can make a difference in deciding whether to bring a candidate who’s committed to maintaining presence in the Middle East to office and bringing in a candidate who embraces troop withdrawal. Don’t shut your eyes to the difference between pro-life and pro-choice and what it means or could potentially mean to you. You are voting for your candidate and your issues – but you are also voting for your age group, your race and your gender. If college students show up in larger numbers this year than in 2004, then politicians will take young people’s issues into consideration in elections to come down the road.

What kind of difference will it make? Suppose a politician is thinking about passing a tax cut and funding it by cutting school loan programs. A larger turnout of youth voters may prevent that money from being given to an older generation and away from needy college students, simply because you showed up and voted. Just by turning out, you change the percentage of young voters and get politicians more interested in your ideas and opinions.

We’ve heard year after year that we don’t like the way the current government is being run, that we need some change, that it’s time for someone new. Do you feel the same way? Then get out to the polls in November and change it, because a government only works as well as the people who are active in it. If you don’t vote, it’s like saying you don’t care how your country is run.

So if you’re that apathetic to voting, where do you get the idea that you can complain when something happens that you don’t like? Regardless of who you support, you have the right to vote; you have the right to go out and have a say in who you feel should run this country. So if you missed the polls yesterday, do the right thing and get involved starting now in preparation for November.

Evan Powers is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].