I Skipped Voting: Here's What Happened

It was November 2022. Local election day. I was 22, living in my first apartment, and honestly? I couldn't be bothered. National politics felt like a joke, local politics seemed even more irrelevant, and I had better things to do. Like scroll TikTok and complain about how nothing ever changes.

So I didn't vote. And then I found out exactly why local elections matter. Let me tell you the story of how skipping one election made my life measurably worse.

The Setup: "My Vote Doesn't Matter Anyway"

I'd heard all the stats. "Only 15% of people vote in local elections!" "Politicians don't care about young voters!" The usual doomer stuff. And honestly, I believed it. Why waste an hour of my day voting for city council when I could just... not?

Plus, I didn't even know who was running. There was no big campaign, no TV ads, just some yard signs for people I'd never heard of. So I did what most people do: I assumed someone else would handle it and went about my day.

Spoiler alert: Someone else did handle it. And they had opinions about how my neighborhood should be run. Unfortunately, their opinions sucked.

"Turns out, when you don't vote, the people who DO vote get to make all the decisions. Wild concept, I know."

Three Months Later: The Food Truck Apocalypse

First sign something was wrong? My favorite taco truck disappeared. Just gone one day. I figured they moved or went out of business. Nope. Turns out the city council banned food trucks from parking within 200 feet of any restaurant.

In my neighborhood, that's basically everywhere. The taco truck, the empanada guy, the Thai food truck that did late-night service—all gone. Why? Because the owners of brick-and-mortar restaurants complained about "unfair competition" and the newly elected city council listened to them.

The vote? Four council members for the ban, three against. One vote could have changed it. And guess what the voter turnout was for that election? 12%. Yeah. 88% of people didn't show up, and now we have no food trucks.

I was legitimately upset. Those food trucks were cheap, good, and convenient. Now my options were expensive sit-down restaurants or DoorDash. Both terrible. All because I—and everyone else—couldn't be bothered to vote.

Six Months Later: Parking Meter Hell

Then it got worse. The city decided to install parking meters on every single street in the downtown area. Including residential streets where people, you know, live. Now I had to pay $2/hour to park in front of my own apartment building.

The reasoning? "Revenue generation for infrastructure improvements." Translation: the city needed money and decided to squeeze it out of residents instead of, I don't know, managing their budget better.

This passed the city council 5-2. Again, a close vote. Again, decided by the same people who won that election I skipped. The one where only 12% of voters showed up.

Now I'm paying an extra $40-60 a month just to park near my apartment. And street parking was free before this. All because the people who DID vote elected a city council that thought nickel-and-diming residents was a great idea.

One Year Later: Rent Goes Up (Thanks, Zoning Laws)

But wait, there's more. About a year after I skipped that election, my landlord raised my rent by $300/month. I was pissed, obviously. But I couldn't really do anything about it because the rental market in my area was insane.

Why was the market so bad? Because the same city council blocked a proposal to allow more multi-family housing. Developers wanted to build affordable apartments. The council said no because existing homeowners didn't want "increased density" in their neighborhoods. So now there's a massive housing shortage and rent is through the roof.

The vote? 4-3 against the development. One. Vote. And I could have influenced that if I'd just shown up to vote for the council members who supported more housing.

Now I'm paying $300 more a month, my savings are gone, and I'm basically living paycheck to paycheck. All because I thought local elections didn't matter.

"Local elections decide your rent, your parking, your food options, and basically everything that affects your daily life. But sure, keep thinking they don't matter."

The Realization: I Played Myself

So let's tally this up. In one year, because I skipped one local election:

• Lost access to cheap, good food trucks

• Started paying $40-60/month for parking that used to be free

• Rent increased by $300/month due to housing shortage caused by zoning restrictions

That's $400+ per month in increased costs, directly caused by decisions made by a city council that won with only 12% voter turnout. I could have voted. I chose not to. And now I'm paying for it. Literally.

The worst part? I can't even be mad at anyone else. This is on me. I had the chance to vote, and I didn't. I assumed it didn't matter, and I was dead wrong.

What I Learned (The Hard Way)

Here's the thing about local elections that nobody tells you: they matter WAY more than national ones for your day-to-day life. The president doesn't decide your rent. Congress doesn't install parking meters on your street. Your city council does. Your school board does. Your county commissioners do.

And because turnout is so low, your vote actually carries weight. In my city's election, the winning candidates got like 800 votes each. Eight hundred. If just 100 more young people had shown up, the result could have been totally different.

But we didn't show up. We assumed it didn't matter. And now we're all paying for it.

The Other Side Won Because They Showed Up

You know who DID vote in that election? Older homeowners. Small business owners. People with time and motivation to go to city council meetings and complain about food trucks and "neighborhood character."

They organized. They voted. They won. And now they're running the city based on their priorities, not mine. Can I blame them? Not really. They played the game. I didn't.

Democracy isn't a spectator sport. You either participate or you get decisions made for you. And I learned that lesson in the most expensive way possible.

What I'm Doing Differently Now

I'm not making that mistake again. Here's what I do now:

1. I vote in EVERY election. National, state, local, special elections, runoffs—all of it. If there's a ballot, I'm filling it out.

2. I actually research local candidates. I spend like 30 minutes before each election reading up on who's running and what they stand for. It's not hard.

3. I go to city council meetings when something affects me. They're public. You can literally just show up and speak. I've done it twice now, and it's wild how few people are there.

4. I get my friends to vote. I literally text them election dates and offer to drive them to the polls. Peer pressure for democracy.

Is it going to fix everything? Probably not. But at least I'm not sitting on the sidelines anymore while other people make decisions that affect my life.

Why You Should Care

Look, I'm not going to lecture you about civic duty or whatever. But if you don't want your city doing dumb stuff like banning food trucks, adding parking meters everywhere, or blocking housing developments that would lower your rent, you need to vote in local elections.

It's genuinely that simple. Show up, fill out the ballot, and prevent your city from being run by people who don't represent you. Because if you don't, someone else will. And they probably have terrible opinions.

The Bottom Line

I skipped one election and it cost me $400+ per month, access to good food, and a bunch of quality of life stuff I used to take for granted. Was it directly my fault? Yeah, kinda. Could I have prevented it by spending 30 minutes voting? Absolutely.

So here's my advice: Don't be like me. Don't skip elections because you think they don't matter. They do. Especially the local ones. Especially the ones where turnout is embarrassingly low.

Your city council controls your rent, your parking, your neighborhood, and basically everything that affects your daily life. And they win with like 800 votes. Your vote actually matters here. Use it.

Anyway, midterms are coming up. Don't crash out like I did. Show up or shut up. Your rent depends on it.