Joe Pitts, September 3, 2004

In most areas of the country, out of 100 people who are eligible to vote in any given county, only 62 percent are registered to vote. For ease of computation, let's say 75 people are registered to vote. In most areas there is a majority and minority party -- of these 75 people, perhaps 50 belong to one party and 25 to the other. Therefore to win, they must first run in the primary. In many cases, winning the primary virtually guarantees victory in the general election.

What percentage of registered voters vote in the primary? It is generally about 19 percent - but let’s say again for ease of computation 30 percent actually vote. 30 percent of 50 (the majority party) is 15.

Of those 15 people, a candidate needs eight votes, a majority, to win an election? Eight. Using these assumptions, eight people out of 100 give us the government we have today. This means that those who care govern those who don't. Representative government was not designed to work in a vacuum. That’s why it is so important to be registered to vote and also get involved.

We’re learning this lesson in Iraq and Afghanistan. These two nations face unprecedented challenges. And while many critics point to these challenges as a failure of American leadership, I would argue the contrary: these challenges are revealing the character of people, long repressed, now reaching for freedom.

For decades these nations faced only the hopeless rule of tyrants. Just three years ago, these nations both suffered at the brutal hands of extremism. In one case, Iraq, a secular dictator brutalized his people, stockpiled weapons, and robbed them of food and money the international community provided to help ease their suffering. In the other, Afghanistan, an Islamist dictatorship silenced opposition and imposed its own extreme interpretation of Islam on the people.

Today, the people of these nations are learning what it takes to rule themselves. In Iraq, only bitter-end Baathists cling to a future of tyranny. Foreign terrorists still seek to influence events in Iraq, but the vast majority of people and political leaders have chosen the future of their nation: democracy. It matters now only what form that will take. In Afghanistan, the Taliban stick to mountain strongholds, content to bully and threaten. But they have not succeeded in preventing people from registering to vote. More than 10 million Afghans have signed up to vote in next month’s presidential election.

With the parties’ conventions concluded, its gut check time for our nation. Here in the United States we have no obstacles to voting. We are not threatened with deadly force if we stop by the voting booth on our way to work to work. And yet, each year, voter turnout is miserably low.

It is literally true that thousands of our forefathers died on battlefields to defend our right to choose our leaders. The same sacrifice being made today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Women and African Americans struggled for decades and centuries to have that right long after white, male landowners first won that right in the War for Independence. How strange it is, then, that such a small percentage of us choose today to exercise that right.

Voting is more than our right; it is our duty.

In 1988, as cracks at last began to appear in the Iron Curtain, a Czech playwright named Vaclav Havel had this to say: "God -- I don’t know why -- wanted me to be a Czech. It was not my choice. But I accept it, and I try to do something for my country because I live here."

Ten years later, the author of that humble statement became President of the Czech Republic. In 1998, 76.7 percent of voting-age Czechs turned out to vote, more than double the percentage of Pennsylvanians who turned out that year.

God wanted Vaclav Havel to be a Czech. He wanted us to be Americans. We don’t know why, and it was not our choice. But we should accept it, and do something for our country because we live here.

Iraqis and Afghans face challenges. As do we. They are choosing democracy. And so should we. Use these next two months to get involved. And on November 2 get out to vote.

Congressman Joe Pitts, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, which includes Lancaster County and parts of Chester County and Berks County.