The Last Time I Vote

Protecting the right to choose, and demanding choices worthy of the public.

The last time I voted in a major national election was in the 2024 presidential election. I remember the growing incredulity and fear as the campaign season blurred into Election Day. I read over the ballots, watched the media circus, and considered the consequences professionally as part of the public safety apparatus of the National Capital Region. There seemed to be no right answers, only varying severities of wrong ones. It felt like being a student who understood the material well enough to see that the math didn't match any of the multiple-choice answers on the exam.

Making my choice to prevent greater harm carried a responsibility of its own. But I wanted more from my vote than the chance to select which failures we would have to endure.

The last time I voted for someone with real enthusiasm was in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. An independent was seeking the Democratic nomination, trying to work within the system we had, while advancing policies that seemed more concerned with people than with corporations or the preservation of political power. I could imagine that coming general election becoming a choice about what kind of change the country would embrace, rather than the choice between change and stagnation.

My candidate lost the nomination. One vote doesn't, and shouldn't, dictate an election. But I wanted to cast that vote. I could explain what I hoped we would build, without beginning with everything I feared the alternative would destroy.

The last time I vote could mean something much more final. I intend to vote this November. I can no longer take for granted the conditions that would make the election after it meaningful.

I cannot predict that this will be our last competitive election. I can recognize the danger of treating electoral safeguards as obstacles to power. Elections can lose their meaning through barriers to participation, manipulation of the field of competition, or refusal to honor the result. The calendar can still say Election Day while the public's ability to hold power accountable diminishes.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to allow new Postal Service restrictions on mail ballots to take effect while litigation proceeds. How well the court’s orders are followed is an open question. The attempted restrictions and the ruling to block them both belong in our understanding of this moment. Safeguards require people willing and able to defend them.

I am privileged to have surface demographics favored by the current administration. But that is only skin deep. I may not have to be so concerned about my name being purged from the voter rolls simply for its spelling or origin, however, others do. They may assume that I vote a certain way based on my profile, but if they look further, they may find my record ‘undesirable’.

My political convictions do not fit neatly into red or blue, and I doubt the fullness of most people's lives fits into either party's platform.

The two-party system compresses those lives into a narrow choice. Access to the ballot and access to a credible field of candidates are distinct problems, but both concern who gets to shape our common future. A party should have to earn our support through what it intends to do with power. Fear of its opponent should never become a permanent exemption from that obligation.

There are opportunities to improve the system now. Virginia voters will consider an amendment establishing a fundamental right to vote. We can use our own political agency to help secure someone else's.

After November, I hope to see a sustained public effort to hold officeholders accountable, recruit challengers, and build the organizations that make better choices viable. Every office should remain open to challenge. Breaking the duopoly's hold will require work between elections, including changing rules that make alternatives so difficult to establish.

Stewardship gives that work a standard. We should select people who protect the public's right to remove them, safeguard institutions beyond their own tenure, and improve the lives of the people entrusted to their care. Their party affiliation cannot substitute for evidence of those commitments.

I look forward to the last time I vote for a party I find out of touch because I fear those who control the other. I expect compromise. What I want is to recover the possibility of voting with affirmative trust.

I look forward to the day when I can say, “The last time I voted, it was for a Steward.”