Why I won't be voting on January 19th

I won't be voting on January 19. Many citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be - I will not be one of them. I am a political science major, and convinced many of my friends to vote, some for the first time, in the 2008 elections. And as hypocritical as it sounds, I will not vote on January 19. In fact, I probably won't vote anywhere next November in the 2010 Congressional elections that are already receiving some attention. I am renouncing my right to vote locally.

Some background for those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about and/or wondering why you too might not be voting next Tuesday: Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy passed away this past summer, leaving a vacant seat in the US Congress. After the Democrats of Massachusetts decided to recognize the mistake they made a few years ago by changing a law allowing the Governor (at that time Republican Mitt Romney, now Democrat Deval Patrick) to name the individual who would fill Massachusetts' senatorial seats if they became vacant, they decided it would be convenient for the Governor to temporarily name a successor until a special election could be held (For those wanting a further understanding, google "Playing Politics"). That special election is on January 19, 2010. Next Tuesday.

Up for the seat are one Democrat contender, Attorney General of Massachusetts Martha Coakley, one Republican contender, State Senator Scott Brown, and one Libertarian candidate, political activist Joseph L. Kennedy (of no relation to the dear former senator or his family). I could say who I prefer in this contest, but since I'm not voting I don't think I should put my nose into the politics of it.

I have the right to vote in this elections as I still have my legal address in Massachusetts and haven't registered to vote as of yet here in Pennsylvania. I could get myself an absentee ballot and weigh in on what some would say is shaping up to be a monumental, historical decision - the outcome of which could be the deciding vote on the national health care reforms up for debate in the US Congress right now. I think we need healthcare reform, and while I don't think this bill does enough to cover every citizen in America as it should, it's the right first step to ensuring all who need medical help in our country can receive it without destroying their finances in the process. Regardless of my feelings on health care, I refuse to let it be the determining factor for me in this election.

So why am I not voting? I think it comes down simply to this - I don't feel like I live anywhere. Sure, I am technically still a resident of Massachusetts, my driver's license is of Massachusetts, my sports affiliations are still in Massachusetts (and always will be), but I do not live in Massachusetts. Sure, I reside and work in Pennsylvania, I pay taxes in Pennsylvania, I am a beneficiary (or burden bearer, depending on your views) of the laws of Pennsylvania, and I will probably be counted amongst Pennsylvanians in the upcoming census. But I do not live in Pennsylvania.

I do not live anywhere. I feel like to live somewhere, one needs some attachment, as I have to Massachusetts, the land of my fathers and mothers, and land where I grew up. But I do not reside there any longer, am no longer effected by their laws and their society, so where is it my place to have my vote, the most sacred of American rights, influence their governance? And despite housing and working and living with the society of Pennsylvanians, I have been here a mere four months - I do not care for or love this place as I do Massachusetts. Where is it my place to have my vote impact the lives of those who call this place their home. I have no home anymore.

I am a provincial mercenary, a nomad of these United States - when my job here is finished I will look to go to school again and yet again change where I reside, but I will at that point be no more a citizen of Massachusetts than of Pennsylvania or wherever I hang my hat then. My brother at school in Arizona will vote by absentee ballot in this special election, but I feel like he still has that right, he still is of Massachusetts despite continuing his education in Arizona. But I feel that I cannot classify myself in the same way anymore, it is simply not the same way in the real world.

Voting for me, as I said before, is the most sacred of American rights. So much so that I cannot bring myself to use it for anything less than its true purpose - to represent me in the place and society and government that I call home. While I am sure that one day I will find that place, today and next Tuesday it is unknown to me.

I think I may again use my right to vote in the next election for the Presidency of the United States as that position is directly reflective of our nation as a whole body, and reflect the only citizenship I am certain of right now. But I have no state, I have no district, I have no precinct. I of course reserve the right to change my mind as I continue to grow, but today this is how I feel. I never thought, as a polisci major and with such a love of our Constitution and democracy, that I could defend, much less include myself amongst those who willfully choose not to vote.

I am a member of the silent, conceding American majority.