The state of our nation worries me, and I want to do something personally to help get us back on an even keel. And so I am sending this letter to the editor and to you, not to ask you to get involved in social media or to contribute money, but rather to ask you to vote in the upcoming elections and to encourage your contacts to do the same. If all of us had voted last November, I don’t think I would be writing you this email.

Among all of the world’s democracies, America has the lowest voter turnout; fewer than one out of every two eligible voters actually voted in recent elections. And the population segment with the lowest turnout was the 18 to 29 year olds — often called the “young people”. Only one in six young people voted in the last midterm elections. If two in six had voted, the results would have been different.

I ask you to encourage all of your contacts, but particularly the young people in your address book, to register and to vote. And please ask your contacts to encourage their contacts to do the same. If each of us carried out this approach, together we could reach all of the voters in America.

Registering and voting have become easy. The website usa.gov can help us vote without leaving home. We can register and vote both online and by mail.

If enough of us vote, particularly young people, we can literally change the world.

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