I was recently involved in a discussion about the current election with several women. No surprise there. We were all from different walks of life, had different political views and represented a cross section of demographics—again, no surprise. What did surprise me was that a third of the group admitted that this would be the first election in which they were voting. Several admitted to not even really paying much attention to the election, even though they would be voting in November. Well, good they’re finally voting.

But it made me wonder about how people could not vote during other elections—whether local or national—and if they realized that as women, they were disenfranchising themselves by not voting. It’s funny too that the conversation should occur during Women’s month and not too much after the anniversary of when women won the right to vote. I vividly remember the first time that I voted. I was so excited that turning 18 meant that my voice and opinion mattered. It was more important to me than being able to drink legally at 21. These women were all well over the age of 18, which meant that for years (in some cases decades), they failed to weigh in on things that affect their lives and livelihoods. It was puzzling.

Two of my sisters are turning 18 this year. Both are eager to vote in November. Both are ticked off that they weren’t allowed to vote in their state primaries because they hadn’t turned 18 yet. I guess it’s the way that we were all raised (one by my mother and step father as I was, the other raised by my biological father and my step mother) that made the three of us, separated by nearly a generation, have the same sense of civic duty as adults, and as adult women to exercise our right to vote. Even when I was abroad, I don’t think that I missed an election—whether local or national.

I’m also in the odd position of being a political wife. I have worked on campaigns before, knocking on doors and speaking with constituents and I have learned that ironically, it is the very same people who tend not to vote (or not to vote regularly) that seem to have the longest laundry lists of complaints and “you should dos.” They can’t be bothered with voting, but want to chew your ear off about what’s wrong with x, y and z. This was similar to the experience that I had during the conversation described at the beginning. Some of the same women who hadn’t voted before could tell you why they didn’t like each candidate, but without any real foundation to the argument. One of the women involved in the conversation is a big supporter of voting, and without going into detail about her political views expressed why voting is important. And hopefully, this will be the first of many elections in which the newbie voters from our conversation will participate.

Voting really isn’t that hard. It involves four simple little steps:

you pay attention to the issues
you make an informed decision
you get off your butt and go to the polls with your ID or sign up for an absentee ballot if you’re eligible
you follow the voting directions.

Sure, voting is a choice. But why disenfranchise yourself when it took so long for people other than white men to have a say in our government?