My grandmother never voted -- not because she didn't want to, but because she was a woman. The amendment giving women the right to vote in the United States came along too late for her. But what about the thousands of men and women in this area who failed to vote in the 2010 election? The only valid excuse would be if they were physically or mentally unable to cast a vote.

Particularly in Florida, where voting by absentee ballot, as well as two weeks of early voting, makes voting almost too easy, there is no excuse. Did they stop to think of the millions of Americans of an earlier era who fought for the right to vote, who were willing even to risk their lives for that opportunity?

Those who chose for whatever reason not to participate in the electoral process have no one to blame but themselves if they are unhappy with the aftermath. Yet history shows, too, that they are the ones most apt to complain. There's a lesson here
somewhere.

By RUTH A. MATHENY, Ormond Beach

The Daytona Beach News-Journal