Two weeks ago, South Carolina held primary elections in preparation for this November’s general election. There was at least one high profile, state-wide race and most counties had at least one hotly contested local race. Runoffs were held yesterday for those races where no one candidate could quite muster a majority of the votes cast in the primary two weeks ago.

I voted both days; but if the news reports are accurate (and my own informal survey suggests they probably are) most of you did not vote.

I asked a few people whether or not they had voted and if they had not I asked why. Here are some quotes from a few of those conversations:

• Oh! I forgot all about it!
• Vote for what?
• I didn't hav time.
• I'm not into politics.
• It doesn't make any difference.
• I didn't know who to vote for.

These responses concern me — not so much because these particular individuals elected (pun intended) to shirk their duty as citizens, but because of the excuses themselves.

“Oh! I forgot all about it!” What kind of rock must this person have been under the past couple of months and especially the days leading up to the elections? You can’t watch television; listen to the radio; or drive down the street without being inundated with images and sounds of the impending election. Heck, you can’t even sit in the dark and read by flashlight without the telephone bringing you the latest pre-recorded message from the candidates. How could anyone forget?

“Vote for what?” I’m not sure how to respond to this one. It came from a well educated, well respected, well funded (i.e. rich) member of the community. Maybe this person really meant, “It’s none of your business!” or perhaps “I don’t really care.” or “I didn’t vote and I’m ashamed so I’m not going to talk about it.” I have no idea what it means so we’ll just go on.

“I didn’t have the time.” I’ll admit that there are many people out there that are busier than me, but I’m just not buying this excuse. The total time from when I pulled into the parking lot at the poll this morning until the time that I pulled out was under 10 minutes. In those 10 minutes I not only managed to vote but I took a little boy into the booth with me and showed him how to vote. I understand that it’s not always that quick; and I understand that everyone doesn’t live within a couple of miles of their designated voting location; but are most people so busy that they can’t spare a few minutes two or three times a year? Hint: the correct answer to that rhetorical question is not to answer, but if you feel you must answer rhetorical questions then the correct answer would be NO.

“I’m not into politics.” I’m not into politics either. Frankly, I don’t like what I hear from most politicians and most of the ones that I have met personally didn’t impress me. I think the political process is screwed up and most of the people that participate in it are even more screwed up. What I am into is protecting myself and my family. I want to make sure that our personal liberties are protected. I want to tell the government to quit taking my hard-earned money and giving it to Sally so she can continue to have babies or to Tom because he’s too lazy to get off his butt and go to work. I want to make sure that the government doesn’t try and tell me when, where, and how I can pray. If that’s “politics” then so be it.

“It doesn’t make any difference.” There are two possible meanings to this feeble excuse. The first is that one person’s vote doesn’t make any difference. While it’s true that few elections are decided by a margin of one vote; every election is made up of single votes. Sometimes, those elections come down to a difference of a mere handful of votes. President Bush gets one vote; Bill Gates gets one vote; and Wayne Godfrey gets one vote. My vote (and yours) counts just as much as any other.

The other possible meaning that we could attribute to this foul excuse is that it doesn’t matter because regardless of who is elected nothing changes. If that’s your excuse you’re an idiot! The end of school prayer; the removal of the Ten Commandments; recognition of homosexual marriages; the amount of taxes you pay; the poor quality of the roads in your town; and the lack of safety as you walk down the street are all a result of the of people that are elected to public office. In a nutshell, it’s a candidates liberal or conservative tendency.

There’s no way you can look at John Kerry and George Bush and say that it doesn’t matter which is elected as our next president. There’s no way you can look at Jim Demint and Inez Tenenbaum and say that it doesn’t matter which is elected as South Carolina’s next senator. If you do, then I will argue you didn’t look at all or you’re a liar.

“I didn’t know who to vote for.” Of the excuses that I heard, this one has the best hope of being legitimate. I’m going out on a limb here and stating unequivocally that you’re better off not voting than picking your candidate by throwing a dart. If you’re not going to make an effort to find out a little about the candidates that are running then I would just as soon you not vote (or call me and I’ll tell you who to vote for).

For most races, not knowing who to vote for is a sign of pure laziness. It’s not very difficult to find out something about most candidates — especially for high profile national and state level races. Yes, you may have to read something, or listen to a debate on the radio or television, but is that really too hard?

For a few races — primarily local races — I’ll admit that it’s sometimes not easy to even find out who is running, much less what they believe. The way to remedy that problem is to demand better information. Call your paper. Call your local television station. Tell them you want more coverage of smaller, local races. Heck, call the candidates and ask them how they stand on the issues! If you’re really clueless, call the candidates and ask them what the issues are.

I think what each of these excuses have in common is they’re all lies. I don’t believe that any of the people I spoke to told me their true reason for not voting. I believe they made up excuses that they thought sounded respectable to keep from having to say “I’m lazy and I just don’t care.”

I’m lazy and just don’t care. At least that would have been an honest answer.

Wayne