Texans will vote in the Texas Primary March 1. Currently, voters have access to endless information about candidates, polls, caucuses and primaries, yet some people do not know what a primary is or what it precedes.

Primaries and caucuses are preliminary elections used to determine the candidates who will represent each party in the presidential election. Citizens with the right and responsibility to vote should pay attention to debates, caucuses and primaries to determine which candidate will best represent them in government.

Some voters know almost nothing leading up to the presidential election and vote for the candidate running for the party the voter supports. Particularly in the younger generation, many people claim the identity of Republican or Democrat without information or understanding. An identity should be more than parents’ beliefs or the locally accepted values. Before a person can claim to belong to a party, he or she must first understand the party’s stance on issues .

Some people assume they are informed by reading social media lists of reasons to vote or not to vote for one candidate or another. However, such reasons are too often based on physical appearance, social standing and personality rather than leadership ability and policy. For instance, Hillary Clinton picks up social media attention for being a woman, while Donald Trump gains popularity for brashness and, by some standards, interesting hair.  Attention to the wrong qualities leads to the election of an ineffective, unsuccessful leader.

Many who ignore the election process say it requires too much time and effort. They should compare the time and effort necessary to check the primary results and watch the debates with the time and effort necessary to work enough to pay unnecessary taxes, reverse unconstitutional laws and fight back against abuse of power. All of this can be avoided by more attention and action during the election process.

The names, faces and numbers may seem unimportant now, but in the future they make the difference between communism and capitalism. The individual elected to the presidency will spend the next four years leading the federal government and making nation-altering decisions. By extension, one vote may hold the power to change the course of the United States.