Voting wisely

How, do I make sure I vote wisely this coming May elections?

- DR. JUN YNARES

A good number of young people have been asking me this question lately, many of whom are first-time voters. It appears they are eager to take part in the forthcoming electoral exercise, and the good news is that they intend to make their votes count.

They asked us the better question: How do I vote wisely? An inferior question would have been: “Who should I vote for?” If that were the question, we would not have answered it. We would rather that our young voters learn how to and start making wise voter choices. After all, our millennial and Gen-Z voters now make up 63 percent of the total voting population. They will be a decisive factor in determining who the next set of legislators and local government officials will be.

In a figurative and literal sense, the future of our country and our democracy is now in their hands.

Our answer to their question is this: when choosing who to vote for, consider three factors — the person, the platform, and the performance.

When examining the “person,” we encouraged them to take a look at the candidate’s character. We told them that they will never find a political aspirant without fault or flaw, and that is not a problem. After all, we are voting for government leaders, not canonizing saints.