Voting is not made easy, and there are a lot of hurdles to voting.

The United States is riddled with gerrymandering, voter suppression and the official voting day is a Tuesday. That’s difficulty by design. The odds are stacked against citizens, especially as an emergence of young voters trying to shape the world to our vision.

It’s hard for young voters to actually get to the polls. We have jobs to work, bills to pay, relationships to maintain. Do you know who does have that time? Older people. They have all the time in the world to get to a polling station and talk about how they are going to vote against the interests of young people everywhere.

We are fortunate in Illinois to be provided an easy path to early voting or mail-in ballots. In Sangamon County, the clerk’s office is open from Monday-Sunday leading up to the election for early voting. If you aren’t registered, you’re able to register at the polls.

Doubts about whether your vote matters or not are understandable, and many people share them. However, you should vote anyways. Here are a few of the benefits to voting:

1.) Even if your candidate doesn’t win, your vote promotes your views within the community. This shows other citizens that may not have voted how similar or different they are to their community members.

2.) When elections don’t produce the results that you wanted, it can be comforting to know that you acted on your civic duty and did as much as you were able. 

3.) Your vote might feel small but your piece of the puzzle helps create an image of progression and change in your community.

Americans are lucky to have the privilege of voting. Aside from rallies and protests, using this privilege is our only way to show the powers that be that we are disappointed or impressed by a specific public servant. In a country divided by party, race, class and economic status, voting is the only way to provide a real change of power and ideas into our city, state and federal governments.

Niko Robledo can be reached at [email protected]