With this upcoming election, we have all seen a lot of turmoil, a lot of passion, and certainly no lack of disagreement between our fellow American voters. Additionally, I am also seeing something that I had not witnessed in the entire 15 years I have lived in this country: the immense amount of people that have decided not to vote. As a now American citizen who emigrated here with my family from the Dominican Republic in pursuit of the “American Dream,” it is heartbreaking to see how many United States citizens are choosing not to exercise this incredibly valuable right. And from the looks of it, it breaks Frito-Lay Doritos’ heart too!

Rock the vote!

In several college campuses, Frito-Lay has established Doritos chips vending machines with an interesting choice process. The vending machine first presents you with the question “Are you registered to vote?” to which you can answer either “yes” or “no.” Once you have given your answer, you go through your chip-selection process as normal. However, if your answer was “no,” then no matter what your choice of flavor was, the vending machine spits out a grey, dull Doritos bag, with cardboard chips – no flavor, no cheesy goodness, no Doritos; Oh, the atrocity! 😦 Just take a look at the poor students’ faces when denied the goodness of real Doritos.

The movement is part of a campaign that the popular chips brand has taken alongside Rock the Vote in order to motivate college students to participate in the voting process. According to Doritos, since 62% of young voters did not take part in the 2012 election, they decided to make a special bag for them. And what is the message of this new, special Doritos “flavor”? Well, I’d say it is pretty obvious: if you give up your right to vote, then you’ve given up your right to choose. Although a great means of motivation by Doritos, the unfortunate fact is that many of us have several excuses to rationalize our decision of not voting during this election. Let’s tackle some of the most common ones.

“Straight out of options”

Doritos is non-partisan, and they just want to try and get us all out there to exercise our right to vote. Yet, without a doubt, the main reason for people “sitting out” during this presidential election is the fact that a significant number of Americans believe that neither of the current presidential candidates are suitably qualified. However, I do not believe that this should be an excuse to sit this election out. Several people have decided to “vote for the lesser of two evils,” which is an option you can choose, no matter whose side you decide to take. Another option is to vote for a third party; any other presidential candidate available on your state ballot (yes, there are more than just four candidates). The best thing you could do is become well-informed; do your research (and for the love of all that is good, please conduct research outside of social media), and vote on the people/things in which you believe – because that is the point of democracy! The purpose of our vote is so that our input on what we all stand for is taken into consideration; the elections are not a time for us to just give up because the fight seems pointless – no battle has ever been won this way. I know that many will say that voting for a third party is pointless, or that your vote doesn’t matter at all, but I can show you some great ways in which your vote still does matter, even if that third party candidate you vote for has no chance at becoming our next president.

My vote doesn’t count.

If you’re like my husband, although he is voting (because his lovely wife said so 🙂 ), you might stick to the rationalization that Electoral College elects the president, not the popular vote. And yes, generally speaking, this is true. However, your vote still counts, just not in the direct way you may think. One thing to remember is that you are voting in your state’s election, not necessarily a national one. Therefore, your vote holds weight in your particular state. As an article on Fact/Myth put it, “You don’t just vote on the President, you vote on many local, state, and federal races and state-based ballot measures!” Since the complexity of how this all works may not be my area of expertise, I urge you to read David Walbert’s “Does my vote count? Understanding the electoral college” if you still have your doubts as to why or how your vote matters; there is a lot more involved in your vote than what you may think. Although your vote for a president does not directly count towards the presidential election, the many other ways in which your vote does count make me stand with Doritos: “If you don’t vote, someone else chooses for you.”

Eh, I don’t think it’s that big a deal.

As part of an immigrant family that came to the United States for opportunity, who has come to love and embrace this country, I will honestly say that the “no big deal” and the “it doesn’t count anyway” statements irk me the most 😦 . Some of us might not know our history very well, and some of us may be very well informed. Nonetheless, I have encountered people who are very aware of the United States’ history in obtaining voting rights, who still refuse to put importance on our vote. One thing we should keep in mind is that not everyone in the United States was always allowed to vote. For a long time, the only eligible citizens allowed to vote were white, rich, male men and no one else. Our right to vote in this country came with a price; it was not just given to us.

The poor – As an example, let’s reflect on Thomas Dorr. Although Dorr was a wealthy, white man, he considered it wrong that the less fortunate citizens were denied a vote in the United States, and so he fought for it. With rusty cannons against Samuel King’s government, Dorr was defeated in his fight and arrested. Yet, his cause could not be crushed (remember that thing I said about standing up for what we believe, and not just give up when the fight seems pointless? Yeah, this is why). Because of what Dorr started, by the time of the Civil War, every white male of voting age, rich or poor, was eligible to vote.

The women – If you’re a woman who’s eligible to vote, you might want to thank Alice Paul. Alice Paul and her supporters protested outside the gates of the White House and were eventually arrested. While in prison, Paul began a hunger strike for which she was then put in a psychiatric facility. There, she was force-fed through a tube, and encountered many more horrid conditions. Finally, on August 26, 1920, Paul’s battle won the women’s right to vote.

The African Americans – For African Americans, a person you might want to think about and thank is Bob Moses. Although African Americans were granted the right to vote in 1868, southern states were going out of their way to prevent black voters from voting in any election. Bob Moses, along with members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, fought for true voting rights. During his fight, he was struck several times in the head, needing several stitches, as well as encountered gunfire from white supremacists in attempts to stop him. Finally, after all the struggle, injuries, and even deaths, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed, allowing equal rights to all voters.

Do you still believe your vote is useless?

Needless to say, it saddens my heart when I see so many people tossing our precious history to a lonely corner, and reducing the value of our hard-earned voting rights. If you do your own research, there is much more that you will be able to find on how we gained our civil rights (the individuals I spoke of were mainly obtained from the Scholastic Website) and how your vote matters. Regardless of where you stand, who you support or don’t support, make sure that you honor the lives of those who fought for our voting rights in this great country (yes, I do still believe that we are a great country, despite our flaws), and appreciate the value of your vote. Don’t get stuck with yucky, plain, cardboard Doritos; make sure you get some tasty Doritos, and vote!

*Featured image: Doritos No Choice

By Nayadee Wilson