In the 2016 election, only 53 percent of eligible voters faced the lines to practice the precious landmark of democracy: voting.

During midterm elections, like those in 2014, the turnout was even lower. Only 36 percent of people voted. Only 36 percent of people practiced what our founding fathers so selflessly fought for.

Voting, when we turn 18, is our obligation as citizens. It’s our civic duty to serve the values of the United States.

It’s often said that your vote doesn’t really matter. When you look at elections, like 2016, where roughly 3 million more voters turned out for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump, how could you blame them for being disillusioned by the Electoral system?

Well, no matter how true and valid their case may be, your vote does absolutely matter. Because, even if sometimes our Electoral system may seem unfair, it almost always plays out in support of the people’s view.

Even if you’re a Democrat in the burnt-in red state of Utah, you have a duty. You have to vote.

Even if you’re a Republican in the seemingly endless blue ocean of California, you have to vote.

Even if you’re a devoted member of the Green Party, you still absolutely have to vote.

You may not get your way. That’s just how life works. But to deny yourself such a fragile right, a right that in countries like North Korea and Cuba is still denied, is merely selfish.

Consider the lives lost in the American Revolution. The tens of thousands of American lives that fought for our future and of the people who continue to serve our military today, those who are working to retain our rights as Americans and to deliver them to others around the world.

As a 15-year-old sophomore, I can’t vote, and chances are, the majority of you can’t vote either. However, when it comes time for the 2020 presidential election, every student in this school, other than the class of 2021, will be able to vote.

That may seem so grudgingly far off. Two whole years. But, it’s not. In a years time, the primary campaigns will be well under way, and it’s time that we all begin to learn about our nation’s government.

Whether you decide to vote Republican or Democrat, I don’t care. All I care about is that you vote.