PLEASE READ THIS!

I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now, and ISTG if I look at my phone for more than thirty seconds, I’m guaranteed to see at least TEN different people reposting the exact same quirky Instagram infographic. You know the ones.. Because they’re so aesthetic whilst screaming about systemic collapse, reproductive rights, or climate doom. Cute.

 

Okay sure. I get it. I also feel that absolute, soul-crushing weight too. I’m so tired of living in Idaho. It is so easy to look at our political system and feel entirely, completely voiceless. We are a generation that is collectively drowning. More than half of us (nearly 60% of young people in this country !!) are actively struggling just to pay for basic life necessities like groceries and rent. The cost of living is suffocating. It feels like the people in power are playing some high-stakes game while we’re left to figure out how to survive. Only a measly 16% of us actually believe that democracy is working for us.

 

So yeah, I get the urge to open my phone and yell into the void. It’s a coping mechanism. But here’s the cold, hard truth that’s making me want to crash out: reposting shit on your story does not do a damn thing at the ballot box.

 

We are literally letting ourselves be pacified by an algorithm. We’ll enthusiastically share slides on platforms run by tech companies we don’t even trust. Because turns out, only about 1 in 5 of us actually even trust major social media companies3. But when it comes to standing in a physical line at a polling place?

 

We freeze and we find excuses. Nearly 53% of eligible voters between 18 and 29 sat out the 2024 election. That is legitimately millions of voices just voluntarily silencing themselves. FOR WHAT?

 

And while we’re busy doom scrolling, the people in power are actively working to make sure our real-world voices are snuffed out completely.

 

Like, take a look at what’s happening right here in Idaho. Lawmakers are trying to tear down one of the most powerful tools we have: the citizen ballot initiative. I wish they would pick up a hobby.

 

If you’ve never heard of a ballot initiative, it’s direct democracy. It’s a process where regular, everyday people (not corrupt politicians) can gather signatures, put a proposed law directly on the ballot, and let the public vote on it. It’s how we bypass the very hostile legislature to get things done. It’s how grassroots groups expanded Medicaid in Idaho back in 2018 with a massive 61% of the vote.

 

But because the politicians in Boise hated that regular people actually used their power, they’ve been on a relentless crusade to kill the process. Back in 2021, they passed a law called SB 1110. It required citizen groups to get signatures from 6% of registered voters in all 35 of Idaho’s legislative districts, instead of the previous 186. It was a deliberate attempt to make the process mathematically impossible.

 

Thankfully, the Idaho Supreme Court stepped in and unanimously ruled SB 1110 unconstitutional. The justices didn’t hold back. They wrote that the law was trying to replace a fake fear of the “tyranny of the majority” with an actual, terrifying “tyranny of the minority”.

 

But the legislature didn’t learn their lesson. Now, they’ve put HJR 4 on the 2026 ballot. If passed, this constitutional amendment would completely strip citizens of the power to use ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis or any other “psychoactive substances.” The language is so incredibly broad that it could block voters from even passing modest reforms, like allowing medical cannabis for Idahoans suffering from severe epilepsy. It’s a blatant power grab designed to open the floodgates for lawmakers to limit what we can and cannot vote on in the future.

 

And if that doesn’t make you furious, consider this: the Idaho Legislature also completely eliminated student ID cards as a valid form of voter identification. They did this with absolutely zero evidence of voter fraud, creating a massive, deliberate hurdle for college students and vulnerable groups who don’t have easy access to other forms of ID.

 

They are doing this because they are absolutely terrified of us.

 

They are counting on us staying home. They are counting on us looking at the hurdles, throwing our hands up in frustration, and deciding that our votes don’t matter. Those who want to suppress the vote are literally praying that we sit this out. Because when we sit out, we will literally hand them the power on a silver platter.

 

I know it’s easy to think, “What’s my one vote going to do? The system is rigged anyway.” But history is full of races decided on absolute knife-edge margins. Midterms and local races ESPECIALLY are constantly decided by just a handful of votes. In 2016, young voters cast many times more votes than the actual margin of victory in key states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina. We literally held the entire election in the palm of our hands, and we didn’t even realize it.

 

Your vote is your accountability check. It is the only physical shield we have against politicians who want to dictate what we can do with our bodies, our lives, and our futures. As the saying goes: there wouldn’t be so many efforts to suppress our votes if they did not matter.

 

So please, keep posting on Instagram if it makes you feel better. But then go touch grass.

 

Go check your registration.

 

Figure out what ID you need to bring (remember: no student IDs in Idaho!) Make a concrete plan for election day.

 

Stop yelling into the void of a screen and start showing up where it actually hurts them. Let’s turn our anger into physical power.

 

See you at the polls.

​

-S