My Number One Wish for the 2006 Elections

This post is part of a series listing my ten wishes for the upcoming election. Each day I will post one wish starting with number 10 and working my way up to the wish I desire most. Because we should think globally and act locally, you’ll notice a Minnesota slant to my wishes. If you’re a progressive or a liberal or a left-wing nut job from another state, I hope your wishes come true too. And now, without further delay, here’s today’s wish…

1. Suffrage Supreme

Even as a kid, when confronted with the classic scenario – the genie, the lamp, the three wishes – my first two wishes varied wildly (pro baseball player, a guitar, fastest kid in my class, a kiss from Nicole, the cutest girl in my second grade class) but my third wish was always the same: three more wishes.

In other words, even as a kid I tried to work the system. Nice.

But what good is a wish if all of your wishes might come true. And if there is a problem with my wishes 10 through two, it is this: they really might come true. And my ten wishes (I think it’s the first series I’ve ever completed) would be extra lame if I didn’t have a wish that really stretched it out. If I wished for something so unlikely to happen that I’d need a genie from a lamp for any shot at all.

And so, for my number one wish, I wish that every adult would register to vote. I wish that every registered voter would vote (only once), and I wish that every vote would be counted.

If this one wish came true, I’m positive that my other nine would as well. But most of all, I’m convinced that something truly amazing, truly magical, something truly worthy of a wish would happen too.

If you haven’t registered to vote, do it.

If you’re registered, vote.

Vote if you always vote. Vote if you never vote. Vote for a candidate. Vote against a candidate.

Vote.
Vote.
Vote.