My turning 18 in 1972 just happened to coincide with the change of the minimum voting age from 21 to 18. Now heading into my 14th presidential election, my win-loss record currently stands at seven wins and six losses. My 52 years as a voter has featured at least a decade spent in each of the two major parties. Although an independent for most of this century, I have never ultimately voted for the independent candidate on any presidential election day. Seven times I have voted for the Republican, six times for the Democrat.

The past six elections have been especially trying, both personally and nationally. Voting for the “lesser of two evils” has come to feel like a new normal. It also appears to have fueled an off-the-charts national cynicism. What’s more, two of the six elections we have had in this century – 2000 and 2016 – ended with a president who did not win the popular vote. Prior to the 21st century, that had happened only three times, never in the 20th.

Another unusual development in recent presidential politics has to do with age. Before President Biden stepped down from consideration, we were basically looking at two octogenarian candidates. We’ve actually been drifting this way for a while. A top-10 list of major presidential candidates by age shows that all 10 appeared in post-1980 races. How unique is this? Well, in the near-century between 1880 and 1976, only four candidates were over 60, and the oldest of these was 67. Of course, mortality rates have changed and people are living longer. But still …

As we head into an already passionately partisan and contentious election season, my biggest concern lies with those who do not plan to vote. On the one hand, this government/history major and longtime teacher of both subjects has been known to pontificate on the importance of voting. On the other, opining on social media seems to do little more than cause people to cling for life to the political positions they have already adopted.

Why vote? My position borrows from the George Jean Nathan (1882-1958) quote: “Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.”

My aforementioned 7-6 win-loss record shows a voting history involving a fair amount of disappointment. What it does not show is the fact that most of the candidates I was really excited about never received their party’s nomination. It also does not show the level of anguish I may have felt over some of those six losses.

Simply put, I have voted for some great candidates who never got to the White House, the Blaine House or the hallowed halls of the Capitol. Nonetheless, my voting journey has also led me to the biggest reason why I, you and everyone should always vote: It’s the simplest measure ordinary citizens can take to keep Nathan’s “bad officials” out of office.

High voter turnout reduces prospects of victory for the demagogue. After all, the demagogue prays for a low turnout. Why? Because the demagogue’s base will show up at the polls no matter what. However, that’s no problem so long as there is a high turnout to drown out the demagogue’s sure-thing base. The lower the turnout, the more power that base wields on election day.

Another way to make this point is with the “Shopping Cart Theory,” a concept proposing that our moral character can be analogous to the dilemma we face in the supermarket parking lot. Do we return the shopping cart to the designated rack within view of our car? Or do we leave it wherever it suits us? Add to this the fact that there is no direct reward for returning it to the rack, no penalty for not returning it and no one is watching in judgment. It’s simply the right thing to do; it speaks to that adage of character as the things we do when no one is watching.

Similarly, voting comes with neither direct reward nor penalty, and no one knows what you do behind the curtain. But the more voters there are, the less chance that someone truly bad will emerge as a victor capable of diminishing our lives – as well as those of family, friends and strangers who will follow.