A few weeks before last year’s presidential election, I was listening to the radio and a DJ was asking his listeners to tell him what personal qualities they looked for in a presidential candidate. People called and commented on things such as general intelligence, attitude and poise. All the answers were great, until a woman called in and admitted she and many of her friends always vote for the best-looking candidate. She tried to justify this choice by saying, “Well, if we’re going to be seeing him on TV all the time, he might as well be good looking, right?” I was dumbfounded.

I grew even more frightened as I asked myself, “How many people are there like this that don’t bother to call a radio station and talk about it?” I would never take away any American’s right to vote, but I couldn’t understand why someone would vote if he or she was only doing it for superficial reasons. Then I thought about the attitude our culture has on voting: We make it out to be a societal requirement rather than a simple privilege.

In its 1980 hit “Freewill,” the Canadian rock trio Rush sang “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Now, 29 years later, this truth has gone completely over the heads of most Americans.

With campaigns like “Vote or Die!” and “Rock the Vote,” people are convinced that the none-of-the-above option might as well not even be an option at all, and immense pressure is put on citizens to make any decision, even if that decision is made blindly.

Our society puts a strong emphasis on staying informed and putting that knowledge to use in voting booths. However, the reality is that a significant portion of the population doesn’t stay informed enough to know what is going on in the world, especially when election time draws near. Most people feel like it’s all right to just participate and vote for anybody, even if it means ignoring the responsibility of learning what the candidates stand for.

But even if you know what each candidate stands for, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should vote for one. During the presidential election last year, for example, I took time in the weeks leading up to Election Day to do extensive research on every candidate [yes, even third-party candidates] in deciding whom to vote for. After doing that, I realized there wasn’t a single person on the ballot I could fully support.

So, refusing to choose the lesser of several evils, I’m not ashamed to say I wrote in my oldest brother — who I know and trust more than any politician. You can go ahead and scoff at me for wasting my vote all you want, I was fully aware my brother wasn’t going to win. The point is, despite knowing either Obama or McCain would inevitably win, I wasn’t about to give one of them direct support based purely on the fact I disliked him less than the other.

Trey Parker made a similar point in an episode of “South Park” in which the boys had to vote between two equally crude and unlikable characters to be their new school mascot.

In the episode, Stan initially refuses to vote for either option. “I think voting is great, but if I have to choose between a [expletive deleted] and a [expletive deleted], I just don’t see the point,” Stan said. He is then banished from South Park until he decides to vote. I guess last year I just felt a little like Stan. Why vote if there’s nobody on the ballot worth voting for? Show me a decent presidential candidate, and I’ll happily mark a ballot for him or her.

But presidential elections aren’t the only important elections. Local elections shape the direction of cities and counties, which are the building blocks of our states and our nation. So, if you voted last week, take a second and ask yourself this question: Did I really know what the people I voted for stood for? If the answer is no, then I urge you to stay out of the booths next year and leave democracy to those who actually care.

Instead of pressuring people to vote, we should be encouraging people to care and become informed so when they vote, it’s for the right reasons. Those who won’t take the time to learn should be encouraged not to vote at all.

The problem with voting in America isn’t the lack of people going to the booths to vote. It is the mindset, attitude and level of knowledge the potential voter has. If America has to pick between emphasizing either the quality of votes or the quantity, it should be quality. It’s better to have ignorant voters not vote at all than have them be pressured to vote and cloud the outcome with uninformed votes.

– Tom Hummer is a junior in English from Ames.