There are five steps to responsible citizenry. The first is the awakening of the desire for things to be better than they are—the desire for change. This can happen at any time in our lives; it can happen more than once. There are people who come to this realization early, and there are those who come to it late; there are some who nurture this fire in their bellies for years, and there are others in whom the fire had gone out once, or twice, or more, but who have found reasons to rekindle their hopes for a better future. However you come to this point actually doesn’t matter much. What is important is that you’re here, and you believe in your heart that things around you—the way things are done, the way people think and speak, the direction being taken—are not the best versions of themselves, and that you have come to the decision to try to change that.
The second step to responsible citizenry is ensuring that you are empowered to help bring about the change you desire. For most young people, this means registering to vote. For those who have already registered, this entails making sure that your voter-registration status is current. Under the law, a registered voter can be stricken off the electoral roll (while still remaining a registered voter, mind you) for the failure to vote in two consecutive regular elections. A responsible citizen, therefore, is one who pays attention to these sort of things, just as responsible adults keep track of things like bill payments or expiration dates on their driver’s licenses. The price, they say, of having clean elections is voter vigilance—well, maintaining a current voter-registration status is, itself, a form of critical vigilance.
Once you’re assured of your voter registration status, you’re ready for the third step: to carefully and intelligently select the candidate or candidates who you believe will
bring about the change you seek.
Despite the ridiculous efforts of some quarters to undermine confidence in the elections, the electoral process remains a bedrock of our democratic way of life and it is still the best way to effect systematic and sustainable change in society. As an aside, this is proven, if by nothing else, by the fact that the very same people who denounce elections as irretrievably flawed typically end up revealing that they themselves are tossing their hats into the political ring. Make no mistake about it: No matter how they contort their reasoning to justify running for elected office, the mere fact that they are engaging the electoral system they once slandered and rejected gives the lie to all of their previous “crusading.”
In any case, note that this step comes after you have registered. While I admit that the individual charisma of potential political superstars is a great driver of voter- registration numbers, in my work with the election commission, I’ve found that those sign-ups also tend to show the weakest commitment to the democratic process. So I think it is better if people approached the elections from a different direction, that is not to support a specific candidacy but to commit to the process first and then select a candidate that will fit.
Which brings us to the fourth step of responsible citizenry: actually voting. Seems self-evident when you say it out loud, but in reality, far too many people tend to do everything else but vote on election day. This is very unfortunate, as the worst public officials are elected into office by the good voters who don’t vote.
And, finally, the responsible citizen doesn’t lose the fire of his desire for change just because election day has come and gone. The fifth step of responsible citizenry is to keep wanting change to happen, to keep being dissatisfied with how things are, to keep wanting things to be even better.
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For those of you paying attention to things—as responsible voters are wont to do—we are now in the midst of the second step: voter registration. Voter registration happens primarily in Commission on Elections offices nationwide, or at satellite registration centers, from Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.