This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two Public Forum letters in Friday's Tribune ("Hughes subverts democracy" and "Happy to vote against Chaffetz") both raised the concern of Utah becoming a one-party state, where the one-party status is virtually assured through rapacious gerrymandering.
One of the letters even ended with "Why bother to vote?" I suspect many people feel this way and subsequently do not vote.
To all the people who do not vote, I would say you are in good but misguided company. You are one of the 71.2 percent of eligible Utah citizens who did not vote in last year's elections.
Now I ask you to consider what could happen if all of that 71.2 percent voted? Not even gerrymandering could defeat so many people. But a different outcome would not be guaranteed, you cry? True, not guaranteed, but definitely possible, and something we cannot know unless we all exercise our precious freedom, and vote!
Michael Kalm
Salt Lake City