What If I Don't Vote When I Registered

Election Twenty-four hours is still a couple weeks abroad, but the 2020 election is already happening correct now. More than than 27 million ballots have been cast and then far, and in five states the voter turnout is already more than xx pct of the entire 2016 turnout. But fifty-fifty though Americans are voting at an unprecedented stride, many still feel similar their votes don't affair. Honestly, I can sympathize. I've covered every chemical element of presidential campaigns in my 15+ years equally a political strategist—many of which I talk over on my podcastYour Presidential Playlist—and know how easy it can be to feel discouraged.

But without strong voter turnout, the balance of ability in your land could literally be decided by cartoon a name out of a hat (looking at you, Virginia). Voters under 30 aren't requesting or returning ballots as much as other cardinal groups. If you're feeling drained by 2020 and can't see how your ane vote matters in all this, I'm hither to tell you that it does. This election will pb to policies and decisions that bear on thousands—if non millions—of people.

Nonetheless not convinced? Hither are five cardinal problems that are seriously at risk if you don't vote.

COVID-19 relief could be stalled indefinitely.

We've all been personally affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and it's difficult to see an terminate in sight. President Trump has continually ignored the advice of the nation's top health experts and fifty-fifty contracted COVID himself later continuing to hit the campaign trail, oftentimes without a mask. It is withal unsafe for most of the country to re-open, and mistrust around a potential vaccine continues to grow.

Despite the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act in 2011, the Trump administration continues to attempt to repeal the law, which would leave millions of Americans without health insurance—in the centre of a pandemic. They take a lawsuit confronting it working its style through the courts right now, while the Republican political party is rushing the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, who would cease up ruling on the case.

Joe Biden has a different path forward. Biden plans to build a national contact-tracing forcefulness and Pandemic Testing Lath to ensure free and reliable testing, coordinate a global approach to develop and distribute a condom vaccine (whereas Trump has said the U.S. won't join the international effort), and restore the pandemic response team that Trump eliminated in 2018. Biden has also proposed a public choice for health insurance, building on the bachelor wellness care coverage that the Affordable Intendance Act expanded. Biden will also urge Congress to laissez passer more coronavirus stimulus packages to aid those economically impacted past the pandemic. The latest package—which passed in the House of Representatives and was ready to provide millions of Americans with boosted stimulus checks, new unemployment benefits, and more than minor-business aid—is now stalled in the Senate.

Working women could lose a generation'southward worth of progress.

Information technology's no secret that women are disproportionately afflicted past America's lack of universal parental leave, which—coupled with the difficulty in finding affordable child care—often leads them to driblet out of the workforce. COVID-19 has simply worsened those inequities. This pandemic-related economic downturn is being chosen the "She-session," as women business relationship for 54 pct of overall net task loss since February. And co-ordinate to LeanIn.Org and McKinsey'due south 2020 Women in the Workplace report, one in iv women are because downsizing their careers or leaving the workforce due to the pandemic. That means in a single yr, all the gains fabricated in the representation of women in management since the study began could exist erased.

Remote schooling and lack of kid intendance have been major influences on women leaving the workforce. And it'southward unlikely to go better shortly with only 60 percent of child care programs expected to stay open longer than a year without public support. As Representative Katie Porter explained on my podcast, "The reality is no part of our economy is going to be strong and stable if we don't take adequate child intendance where kids tin exist prophylactic." A Biden administration would enact many aspects of Senator Elizabeth Warren's kid care program to ease the brunt on working mothers: free preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds, expanding the child tax credit and making it available for all parents, and increasing pay and benefits for child care workers. While Trump had proposed a plan to make child intendance more affordable, he'due south failed to follow through on that promise. Biden'south plan would as well champion women's equality at piece of work by reissuing Executive Gild 13583 to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce, something Trump has ignored. Additionally, Biden's coronavirus recovery plan implements a national standard for school rubber guidelines and earmarks emergency funding for public schools.

Reproductive rights could be in serious jeopardy.

In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg'due south death, Trump and the Republican-led Senate are working to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before Election Twenty-four hour period. Barrett is known for her consertative, anti-choice opinion on reproductive rights. She has refused to respond how she would rule in cases on abortion and the Affordable Care Human activity during her hearings, but did sayRoe 5. Wadeshould not be considered a super-precedent. If Barrett'southward nomination goes through, the 6-3 bourgeois to liberal Supreme Court could hear a case on a woman'southward right to choose and determine to overturn Roe 5. Wade. The Trump administration has also prevented health care providers from telling patients about safe, legal ballgame options past implementing a gag rule in 2019 dismantling Title X. This besides blocked 4 million patients from getting affordable birth command, STD testing, cancer screenings, and other care at Planned Parenthood.

Biden has pledged to codifyRoe v. Wade into law and nominate judges who would "support the right of privacy, on which the entire notion of a woman'south right to choose is based." He would repeal the Title X gag rule and ensure everyone has admission to all wellness care options. Every bit his runningmate, VP nominee Kamala Harris supports pro-selection plans every bit well. When running in the presidential primary, she proposed calculation a requirement of preclearance for states that have a history of enacting laws that restrict abotion, similar to the way that the Voting Rights Human action protects against restrictive voting laws.

The environment could be damaged across repair.

Recent news reports and experts say we take only vii years until the climate crisis irreversibly alters the planet. President Trump has not only refused to admit climate scientists, he has removed climate change information from official authorities websites. He's also rolled back more than than 70 ecology regulations and is repealing at least xx more. Recently Trump refused to phone call climate change an "existential threat."

Eighty scientists have endorsed Biden, whose climate change plan would invest $ane.7 trillion to fight climate change, including investment grants in high-adventure communities and coin for climate research. Biden would recommit to the Paris Agreement, the international climate accord supported by more than 190 countries, which Trump backed out of in 2017. Biden'due south plan also promises that the U.S. volition achieve a 100-pct clean energy economy and net-nix emissions no subsequently than 2050. But the Biden programme does allow for the continuation of fracking, a controversial practice opposed by some environmental groups because of the risks of contaminating local groundwater and releasing dangerous chemicals, which falls short of the Dark-green New Deal. Trump also supports fracking.

Redistricting could dramatically alter your country'southward representation, funding, and policies.

Trump has been taking measures that could atomic number 82 to huge reductions in the Census population count, dramatically altering the redrawing of political districts for the next x years. Deadlines for the 2020 U.S. Census had been extended through the end of Oct to ensure an accurate population count, merely the Trump administration just received Supreme Court back up to shut down the census early. Trump is also trying to exclude unauthorized immigrants from completing the census, which could lead to an undercount of the U.Due south. population. Census numbers make up one's mind federal funding for roads and assistance programs, congressional district lines, and numbers of representatives to Congress, and then some areas could end upwards being underfunded and nether-represented.

That's why voting in down-ballot races for state and local positions is extra important this twelvemonth. State legislatures volition draw the new lines for districts using Census information. The make-up of power in your state after this election volition take a lasting influence on who is likely to win future elections and which communities will be represented in our regime. That impacts the type of legislation that does—or doesn't—laissez passer, similar whether your land permits Covid-related rent freezes or supports adoption and surrogacy rights for LGBTQ families. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego summed it up well on my podcast: "I hope that as we look at who we elect at the federal level, we besides recollect about people who take faced the challenges our communities face up."

Clearly, a lot is at stake this election. That's not to say it'due south all gloom and doom. As One Arizona's Executive Managing director Montserrat Arredondo said during our conversation onYour Presidential Playlist, "Anybody has had something change in their lives. The only matter that hasn't changed is the voting timeline." If you're registered to vote, you still have time to brand an impact on all of these issues. If your state allows it, vote early by mail or ballot driblet-off to ensure your vote is counted on time. You can also prove upwardly at your polling identify on November iii to vote in person. By showing up—not sitting out—we can still make our voices heard and see the progress we desire at every level of government.