The last day to register to vote in California was Oct. 21. Registration was as easy as spending 10 minutes on vote.gov. Since 2023, around 27% of the student body of USC has been international students, an underrepresented population that is unable to let themselves be heard by filling out this 10-minute form, myself being one of them. As a student concerned for the protection of my beliefs, my sexuality, my way of life and my ability to peacefully exist within this country, I feel powerless in being completely unable to let my voice be heard on a federal scale. 

No matter how confident I or anyone else might be that California will remain a blue state, it is not a chance any of us should be willing to take. We are the most populous state in the country, holding 52 seats in the House of Representatives — one less than we did in the 2020 election cycle — and as such, our decision is the most significant in the country. In 2020, only about 66% of university students who were eligible voters ended up voting in the presidential race, meaning one-third of students that year made the conscious decision to abstain from using their right as a citizen, one that immigrants wish they had. 

It is unacceptable that so many students among us are choosing to not vote, some even existing in my own social circle and probably yours, too. It is the duty of the University, and the duty of this publication to bolster the spirits of as many students as possible to increase our voter numbers. If you choose not to, and the Republican nominee wins the presidential race and stays true to his word, I fear it will be true that we will never “have to vote again.” Whether you see this as a call to action to vote for one side or the other, what matters is that your decision is informed and that your voice is heard.

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The political climate in which most news media exists today seems to be so bent on embracing the grandeur of government that many end up being completely unable to recognize the importance and the influence they have on this country of 337 million. I hear all the time the complaint that “just one vote won’t make a difference anyway” or that “the person I would vote for will win anyway.” 

Oftentimes, this idea is fueled by the feeling that the preemptive polls all the newspapers you see report on are accurate and that there is no cause for worry if your candidate is winning on your newsfeed. The fact is that snapshot polls, also called horse race polls, are somewhat historically inaccurate and do not represent the whole picture, leaving out key demographics such as most voters of color. As for feeling like one vote is inconsequential, we all understand that “it’s okay to litter because one piece of trash will not matter” is a flawed argument and must also realize that the same applies to voting.

Incumbents facing billionaires on issues pertaining to foreign conflicts that most people — assuming we are not all wartime deescalation experts — are unfamiliar with have made the stark reality that things get away from us. We focus on the global scale and feel intimidated. We feel that the courses of action the government takes are out of our control, but this is your chance to exercise the greatest control the government will constitutionally guarantee you. 

I do not write this as a research article to add facts you can find in every major publication. I write this as a complaint, a vent on the inability I feel as someone who has lived in the country for 11 years and still has to wait several more months to receive my citizenship and, with it, the right to vote that everyone around me is granted. 

The Constitution tells you that voting is your right, but we live in a country with nearly 50 million immigrants. If so many people around you cannot do what you can, it is really your privilege, and nothing else, to cast your voice onto one of the biggest governments in the world. Unfortunately, that privilege comes with the responsibility of taking the time out of each day to understand how our environment functions. It isn’t just “politics,” it is your life, and it is my life. The one thing nonvoters owe to themselves and those around them is to allow what voice we have as “We the People of the United States” to exist.