Good morning John. This video is for young people in America. You are not a young person in America, but you can still watch. In fact, please do, and if you feel compelled to, send this video to young people you know in America.   It's time to talk about why we're not voting. Here are some of the reasons I hear.   "I don't want to get jury duty." STOP. No. NO. Nothin' - no correlation between those two things. You get jury duty whether or not you're registered to vote.   "I don't want to vote for the lesser of two evils." Why - why not? It's the lesser of two evils. Do you want to vote for the greater of two evils? Because not voting is like half a vote for the greater of two evils. Also I just did my absentee ballot and I felt a lot of times like I was voting for the greater of two goods. It happens.   "I don't know who or what to vote for." This is a completely acceptable excuse. However, if you care about the world, it's really easy nowadays to do research on the ballot initiatives and candidates on your ballot. Just Google the place where you live and "voter information packet" or "candidates." Do a little research. It'll take like a half hour. Also don't feel bad for not voting on every single thing on the ballot. Here's something from mine: "To change the name of the State Auditor to Commissioner of Securities and Insurance.'" I don't care about that.   "I don't even know if I'm registered." Allow me to introduce you to canivote.org. It will tell you in like twelve seconds.   "I'm not registered." Eleven states including California have same day voter registration, and even in places that don't, there's still time to register. You can check out how in the links in the description.   "I don't really care." This is completely acceptable; if you don't care don't vote. It's, like, one of the good excuses.   "Big corporations and millionaires are the only ones who actually decide the outcomes of elections." Big corporations get fewer votes than you do, and millionaires get the exact same number. However, millionaires do disproportionately affect elections because 99% of them vote! If you want proof that millionaires can't buy elections, there it is for ya. They go to the polls and they vote because they know that is the only way people get elected.    "I can't get to the poll on November 4th." Another completely legitimate reason, and I'm sorry to hear that, and look into absentee boating next - boating? Absentee boating - is not something you want to do.   "I'm just done with this, the gridlocks and bickering and cynicism - I just don't want to be a part of it." I feel you. I absolutely do. Campaigns these days seem to be more about energizing the base in the form of angering and terrifying them than they are about actually talking about issues or providing information. This tends to turn away more moderate voters - especially young people. But the more moderate voters are the ones that we need to turn this country away from partisanship and gridlock.   "It's not even a democracy." OH MY GOD, YES IT IS. You know how many democracies there were in the world in 1900? ZERO. There was no universal suffrage in the entire world. We could do better in America. It could be more representative. In fact, there are ballot measures in lots of states designed to make it less representative. The only way to make it more representative is to vote.   And finally, the one that bugs me the most: "You know my vote's not going to matter." The notion that your vote won't matter because it probably won't be the individual deciding vote in a particular election is a magnificent failure of imagination. If every young person who used this excuse got off their butt and voted one Tuesday every two years, they would literally be the deciding vote in thousands of elections. So maybe it's time to do that. To recognize that the power lies with us. That's what democracies are.   Make this country better because you can, so you kinda have an obligation to. People born after the year 1980 make up like 30% of the electorate now. But only 21% of people under the age of 24 are expected to vote this election. If you aren't voting, no one is hearing your voice, so they have no reason to represent you. There's only one way you can change that and it is a very easy thing: vote.    John, I'll see you on Tuesday.