What Being a Rational

Voter Means!

by Alyssa Soto

Being a rational voter means you think through who you’re voting for rather than
voting with emotion, or based on your designated party. Meaning you need to look
into who you want to vote for instead of relying on new station’s tellings, and not
take the politicians word for who is the right person to represent the said
candidate. Being rational is having an open mind to what is being said, and not
allowing your mind to be clouded by what the media is spewing. Doing these things
is the responsible thing to do as it has a better outcome in the long run of which
candidate wins, instead of voting on your party who might not stand for what you
agree with, but is your party's representative. Voting is a Rational Decision by
Andrew Gelman and Noah Kaplan represents why being a rational voter is essential
and why just voting for your party is destructive.
Being educated is something that is praised in our world today, while you might not
need a college degree to be successful, knowing how to research is a skill that is
beneficial to every individual. Knowing what to look for when voting, where to get
you information, and what is propaganda is a skill that can improve voting
immensely. The Cougar has an Article written by Kimberley Argueta titled “Voter
Education is More Important Than Ever Before”, where it is stated “Yes, voting is
ultimately making a decision based on your specific opinions or bias...” This is a
misconstrued stereotype of voting, when voting it shouldn’t be based on your
opinions or bias, but on the research behind the candidate.
Being educated can help this as knowing to research the candidates is what can
base on your backed up opinion on, Having a backed up opinion is what you always
want to bring to the table when talking about serious topics, having no background,
and just solely your own opinion is no more useful than using a fork to eat soup.