Why Your Vote Matters — Whether You Live in a Swing State or Not

Like many young people, when I was growing up, I was told that my vote didn’t matter. When my entire class voted for Al Gore in the 2001 school election but George W. Bush won the electoral college, my teacher remarked that New York always votes for the Democrat but that it doesn’t always matter. When I cast my first vote in November 2012, I came into school excited only to be told by multiple teachers that New York always votes for Democrats and so my vote didn’t really matter. …