You can register to vote online until Oct. 8. In order to register, you must have a Washington ID and if you don’t, you can still register by mail.

There are two schools of thought on voting at this point.

You can have whatever complaints you want about the area and its politicians, but the truth is that your complaints are not justified if you do nothing to fix them.

Fortunately, it can be pretty simple. Taking less than half an hour of one day to vote is your best bet to see the projects you want to be completed and the people you agree with in charge.

Of course, the main argument people have is that their vote doesn’t matter. But think of it this way: your vote will never matter if you do not bother to cast it in the first place.

We at the Evergreen know the power a single vote holds.

Or think of it this way: you need $100 to repair your car and you have 100 friends who catch rides from you pretty frequently. Each of them wants you to get the car fixed and it’s easy enough to give you a dollar. However, none of them think the others will donate their money and in the end, most of them decide not to give you the dollars.

What happens? The car doesn’t get fixed, nobody gets rides and the few who gave up their dollars become jaded, thinking their dollars won’t matter in the future.

It’s a vicious cycle with a simple solution.

Local elections affect too many facets of daily life to count. One politician can change an entire community with the right support.

It’s easy to feel apathetic, but it’s exactly that apathy that keeps change from happening. Young people are often vocal about their political beliefs, but too often fail to follow through on paper.

Marching in a protest, attending rallies or advocating for change online is all well and good but doesn’t mean anything when those same people don’t show up to vote.

Nor is voting in the general elections alone going to fix problems in one’s own community. Most students at WSU will spend at least four years of their life in Pullman. We as students are not separate from the problems facing Whitman County. We’re part of the community they affect.

One of the roles of a university is to create more informed, civically engaged citizens. Students have the chance to register in Washington on campus and local politicians regularly visit for events giving students the chance to ask questions face-to-face.

Yet many of us fail to make the most of the resources available to us or the fact that Washington makes voting incredibly easy with online voter registration and mail-in ballots.

In less time than it takes you to get a coffee, you can register to vote online. Even after the deadline on Monday, there’s still a chance to vote by taking a few minutes in person.

If you want to see a change in society or feel you aren’t being represented, the first step is making your voice heard.