Every four years, an opportunity of a lifetime comes — the opportunity to vote in the presidential elections. By simply casting a vote for president we are participating in greatest democracy the world has seen.

Unless you are poor, a minority, or live in Florida, your vote counts toward convincing the Electoral College who to choose as president.

Bear with me, we haven’t discussed these ideas since government class as a senior in high school, but they are important.

This election year, the amount of time, energy, and money being spent on trying to get the young folk to vote is incredible — even ridiculous — considering the task in front of us. As it turns out, voting is not difficult, takes just a few minutes, and is good for our country.

Voter drives are important. One of the key points in the civil rights campaign of the 1960s was to get black Americans registered to vote. Right here on our campus, instructors try hard to get us to fulfill our democratic duties.

It’s not easy though.

Dr. Politics (ISU political science professor Steffen Schmidt) said on “Talk of Iowa” that young voters “disappoint me every time.” The efforts of Dr. Politics, MTV and the New Voters Project are a good first step.

Voting, however, is just a small part of participating in democracy. A good friend of mine told me just the other day, “Voting is just a note in the symphony of democracy.”

Voting, just a single note in the symphony of democracy, how can that be? MTV and the New Voters Project keep telling me it’s everything.

The truth is that voting is critical, but it’s not everything. Other things, like contacting your senators and your representatives and even such things as creating community organizations in your local neighborhoods are very important to a democracy.

Free and fair elections — unlike the disputed 2000 presidential elections — freedom of expression, equality before the law, and due process are all aspects of democracy that we should not forget.

Imagine how difficult it is to convince one of us to vote. Now, imagine that you succeeded in getting one student to vote this November, and after that student votes and his or her candidate loses, the student you talked into voting may give up on participating in any other way.

I think it’s great that there is such a push to invite a certain demographic to participate in democracy- — a demographic that historically hasn’t participated.

I think it is vitally important that this work is being done and I cannot express in words how thankful I am of the New Voters Project on campus.

I just hope that alongside encouraging students to vote, these organizations will encourage full participation in democracy.

We are lucky to have the form of government we have in the United States. Even amid the confusion of the 2000 elections, where the Supreme Court ended up deciding who won, it is amazing to think that this power change occurred without violence. Instead, it took place in the courts with a due process of law.

To truly participate in democracy, you need to vote. Get registered and vote for the candidate of your choice. Read up on current issues like the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, the proposed merging of Des Moines and Polk County governance or the proposed new mall in Ames.

After doing so, write a letter to your City Council member, your state legislator, your U. S. senator in support of your positions.

Remember that voting is one note in the symphony of democracy. The symphony — like democracy — is incomplete without the other notes.