This may be a bit shocking or come as bad news to some readers: I am not voting in November. In fact, I am not even a registered voter.

There are many organizations on campus urging people to vote. These organizations hope to raise the number of college student voters and are not shy about letting people know they exist.

The goal of the Public Interest Research Group is to have 95 percent of the campus registered for this election. They know this is an extremely tough goal and if they do not reach this high number, it’s not for the lack of trying.

Posters are stuck on what seems like every bulletin board on campus. They can be found in classrooms, building windows, chalkboards, dining centers and living areas.

“Are you already registered to vote?” a girl asked me with a large smile in front of Lagomarcino last week. “Nope! I’m not going to,” I responded, with an equally large smile. The expresssion she gave me looked as if I had just said I wanted to eat her firstborn child.

I continued to walk on, only to be asked the same question again the following week. I realize that my choice to exercise my right not to vote seems not only odd to students — even irresponsible — but, in fact, my reason is a good one. I am being responsible by not voting and would appreciate it if people could stop looking as me as if I just announced I’m the Antichrist.

Someone who has tried to ignore the political antics of the upcoming elections is still bombarded with the topic everywhere they look. It’s a subject that refuses to be ignored. Pick up a paper and there are a million articles on who to vote for. The pictures of both candidates are some of the most awkward that have ever been taken. Obama looks like he’s trying to be friendly — with limited success — and McCain always looks angry or accusatory. Both of their faces look like they’ve been told they need a prostate exam.

Elections have become more of a dogfight than an honest debate. On the other hand, when the two are not trying to convince the country why the other is an ignorant, lying idiot, the election has turned into more of a question of who is Best In Show, not who has a better idea of how to run a country.

McCain and Obama’s campaigns aren’t about their platform or abilities to run a country anymore. They try to convince the country that the other is lying and can be discredited. They have both completely lost all understanding of what it is to run a country. It shouldn’t be about tearing the country apart and ragging on each other. It is supposed to be about bringing a country together and doing what is best for the people. What happened to the honest men who formed this country? True, they had war and hard decisions to make, but it was all in the best interest of our country and made it was it is today.

We shouldn’t care about the color of a candidate’s skin or their gender. We shouldn’t care how old they are or even how much experience they have. What we should be worried about is who will bring us together, who will stand with us when we are in tough times. Someone who cares about what we, the people, have to say.

Our country doesn’t fully follow everything the president wants, anyway. Our check and balance system, Congress and the ability for the people to vote on subjects, mostly keeps the president in line. After the inauguration we see that the president is still a man, not a magical cure for all of our problems, and we usually end up disliking him afterward.

Give me a man or woman who can keep their cool when attacked by other candidates. Give me a candidate who does not tear apart the competition for his or her own gain. Give me someone who knows the people and understands that what we need most right now is something to bring us together. Someone to figure out the war, the economy, healthcare and education system together and who does not tell us what we need, but listens to what we need. Give me a man or woman who has remembered what it really means to be a president and you will have one more registered voter. That person will have my vote wholeheartedly.

Until then I won’t care who is elected, because the whole election charade has become not about who we want to vote for and believe in, but about who we hate less. I refuse to give up my vote to someone just because I hate the other candidate as a person.