The Importance of Voting Speech

Michael Kusi

Topic: We Must Vote.

Hello my name is Michael Kusi. I extend my greetings to those in

Toastmaster and to the guests who have come. I acknowledge my fellow

Toastmasters and those who have come because they are interested.

Today I will be talking about the importance of voting. Did you know that in

2020, it was the most people had voted in a while. 66.8% of people voted in the 2020 Presidential election. Before it was around 50%, and we trailed several other democracies. To put that into perspective, 208 million people watched the Super Bowl. So some people would rather watch their favorite quarterback try to win another ring and toss a football than to go and vote in the presidential election. The other extreme is when in the past some people went to their district leader and proudly told him that they voted 39 times today. I would not condone such enthusiasm, and this behaviour is one of the reasons why people distrust the electoral system.

One of the reasons why people don’t vote is because they distrust the voting system. Some people think that there is widespread voter fraud, and others think that there is widespread voter suppression. It’s like the person who wears a coat with shorts because they don’t know what weather to expect. But there is this belief that the votes are not counted properly. They believe that there is something wrong with the voting system, and therefore they will not vote. Some believe that there is vote harvesting, and that nefarious forces use the names of the dead to force.

 Others believe that people are being turned away from the polls, and that there is a systematic effort to prevent people from voting that is working. This is not widespread by any means. Don’t worry, we don’t need to call Ghostbusters every voting cycle to make sure that the dead are in their place. In one case, a person who was thought to be dead was actually alive, and very mad that she was thought to be a dead person casting her vote. I saw the efforts for election integrity firsthand in my work as an Election Inspector.

I worked as an election inspector in the school board elections and in the elections at large, and let me tell you that there are great precautions taken to preserve election integrity. Everything, from opening the machines and checking the person to vote, has to be signed off by members of both parties. If there is any controversy about someone voting, we do not turn people away, but we give them an affidavit ballot and let the people at the Board of Elections evaluate the person later. I as an Election Inspector am commanded to never turn someone away from voting, but to let everyone exercise their franchise to vote.

Other people think that voting does not make a difference. They think that my ballot is one of hundreds or millions of votes. Therefore, it is one drop in the sea of votes come election time. I say all of this to emphasize the importance of voting. Only you can vote for the ideas that you hold dear. Only you can vote for the people who you want in public office. And only you can vote for those initiatives that would fund the programs that you like.

Voting is the highest authority bestowed onto the American people. We marched for it, legislated for it, but we will not give up this sacred right now or ever. The voting booth is like the phone booth of old for Superman. We go in there with the power to observe a convention as long in the tooth as our country’s founding. When we stretch out our hand to give the ballot, we are stretching the strength of the republic. If we ignore this right, then our other rights can be ignored as well.  The fight to preserve our right to vote is ours as well.

Our forebears fought for this positioning with their blood in obedience to the sound of a noble movement. This movement to vote is both an obligation and an honor not to be forgotten. The breath and pens of gentlemen and women alike stepped at the same time to send this message of this deep creed.  The most power a citizen can command is to stand with the ballot in his or her hand. The sacrifice of times past is embodied in that ballot.

So, in conclusion, voting is important because in voting we determine the fabric of this great country. There are safeguards against both voter fraud and voter suppression, and voting is vital for the well-being of our republic. In your hands as well as mine was given the ballot to make a difference in our country. Let us go out and make our voices heard come election time. 

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