Why a large number of our citizens do not vote

My wife and I talked last night about the low voter turnout in Huntington and Cabell County during the last general election in 2004. I was lamenting about the fact that it took only 3,500 votes to win the Democratic nomination for the office of Mayor of the City of Huntington, during that year's primary election. She listened politely while I lambasted the citizens of our city and county for not participating in our area's elections. She sat quietly while I voiced my disbelief that our citizens show a total lack of community spirit and independent responsibility by failing to stay informed about our areas problems and refusing to participate in elections. As always, she let me have my say.

Then, she asked me to consider this, "If you were living on a subsistence income, in sub-standard housing, were poorly educated and didn't even have enough to eat some days, and if you felt that no one with the government cared about your circumstances would you register to vote and vote? When you have witnessed election after election while nothing ever got better in your life, would you participate in elections?" She went on to enumerate reasons why many of our citizens are not motivated to participate in elections. To her, the bottom line is that people do not vote because they truly do not believe that it will make a difference.

If my wife is right, we are in big trouble. After much thought about what she said, I am convinced, more than ever, that we citizens who do vote have an even larger responsibility to choose our political leaders carefully. Why, you say? We are choosing for the citizens who feel isolated, forgotten, uncared for and helpless - those who feel that nothing will change for them, whether they vote, or not.