Does Your Vote Count?

By Travis Farmer

The very foundation of democracy is that the populace of a country may choose what happens in said country through voting; and for many people, the United States of America upholds this definition. However, does your vote actually count? With delegates, superdelegates, electors, and other various election-related terms, voting can quickly become confusing. For example, many people think that the popular vote determines who wins the presidency, but the results of the 2016 election prove this to be false.

Yes, your vote counts. Everyone who has the capability to vote should do so in every election cycle. According to CNN, voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election was at a 20-year low with only 58 percent of the total possible voters actually having voted. Regardless of your party affiliation, you should always go out and vote not only in the presidential elections, but also in local elections. While the presidential election uses an odd voting system, many smaller elections use the basic popular vote, meaning that your vote counts fully in every meaning of the word.

But, if your vote counts, how did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton win more votes than President-Elect Trump, yet still lose the election? The presidential election is not determined by the popular vote, but rather by the electoral vote. Every state has a specific number of electoral votes based on its population. For example, Florida has 29 electoral votes. Think of these votes almost as points, in which every state is worth a certain amount of points and whoever gets the most points is the winner. On election night, a candidate must win 270 electoral votes (points) in order to win the presidency. After the night of Tuesday, November 8 was over, Trump had won the majority of electoral votes.

Trump won key states such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, all states that President Obama handily won in the previous two elections. These states are how Trump won the election despite the margin in the popular vote.

States are won in a “winner-take-all” format, meaning that whichever candidate wins a state they receive all of the electoral votes. So, if you are a Republican living in a deep blue state, such as California or Washington, which are considered some of the easiest to win for the Democrats, does your vote actually matter if it is almost guaranteed your party will not win? Similarly, what if you are a Democrat living in Alabama? The answer is that of course your vote matters, but only in the case of a potential upset. If you are following pure statistics, your vote may not matter, but in actuality, it always does.

However, electoral votes are not just arbitrary points. They are a group of 538 real people who vote for the president. So, what happens when an elector votes against his or her party? Many believe that your vote does not cite a specific political phenomenon for why. Electors do not have to vote for whom their state says. For example, the 28th elector from Florida casted their vote for Clinton, despite Trump winning the state. These are called “faithless electors.” In the advent of the Electoral College, there has been 157 faithless electors and the last one to cast their ballot for another party was in 1972. Luckily, many states have specific laws against electors voting for a candidate different from their party, but the punishments are not severe, mostly resulting in fines or misdemeanors.

However, this occurrence is incredibly rare. Of the 157 faithless electors, only 85 have actually changed their vote, with three of them choosing to abstain completely from voting. Although, this has not stopped many people from signing a petition asking electors to vote for Clinton instead.

Over three million people have signed a petition on Change.org begging electors to vote for Clinton instead of Trump. This outcome would be unprecedented, but possible.

So once again, does your vote count? In 99percent of outcomes it does if you look at how many electors have ever crossed party lines, only .003 percent of electoral votes have went to a different party than the rightful one.

According to the CNN exit polls, which are polls taken as voters left their voting sites, many demographic groups chose Clinton over Trump. In fact, the only demographic that Trump truly owned consistently was older white men. Females, minorities, voters ages 18-44, and lower income voters all leaned towards the blue side, some with margins as large as 88percent towards Clinton.

So, if Clinton had so many demographics locked down, why did she lose the election? The sad truth is that the demographics that could have leaned the vote towards Clinton are also the demographics that tend to not vote as often as others. So, some votes may count more than others. Minority turnout was down in 2016 from 2008 and 2012, leading many experts to cite that Clinton lost exclusively to low voter turnout among those key demographics.

The 2016 election was incredibly close and should inspire citizens of both parties to get out and vote in the next election. Even if you don’t live in a battleground state, you should still get out and vote in presidential, local, and midterm elections. Regardless of if you are unhappy with the results of the election or satisfied, you should vote in every election. It is your duty as an American citizen and as a supporter of democracy to allow your voice to be heard.