The right to vote is granted to any American citizen over 18 years of age with the exception of states where felons and individuals with specific mental disorders are denied that privilege.

While there are reasonable arguments for and against the modification of standards of eligibility, it’s always been assumed that for our system of government to function properly, we must engage the public en masse.

Whether you call it a Democracy or a Republic, what matters is that ours is a government designed to give the people the right to govern themselves and to prevent any individual from having absolute power. The state-administered election process is one of the institutions designed to prevent corruption.

In this essay I focus on what I see as categories of voters in America today. While the groups described are neither mutually exclusive nor comprehensive, they might serve as an overview of the dynamics and character of the electorate.

The first group consists of instinctive voters. They are not inclined to get into the weeds of complex government matters.

Many will admit that they never cared much about school, and that real life experience is more important. They will assert that although they are not “book-smart,” they have common sense, and their “gut” tells them which candidates will serve them best.

There is another group of voters who seek knowledge, but they are susceptible to misinformation and inclined to rely on lame internet sources and conspiracy theories to bolster their predispositions. They believe what they want to believe.

Brand voters show allegiance to their “team.” To illustrate: marketers target children not just to sell them their product today, but also in the future. Ads that affect kids emotionally are likely to make them loyal customers (International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences Vol. 7, No.3). If they connect to Coke over Pepsi as kids, they will prefer Coke as adults. The typical Buffalo Bills has been one since childhood; the team has been the center of social bonding. Hence, what party you are born into typically determines your party as an adult.

Philosophical voters are folks who understand the tenets of their party. For republicans, there is fiscal conservatism, defense of the free market, and deregulation. For democrats, it is the idea of social responsibility through government programs, including social security, health care, welfare, and the environment.

Another very small but critical group is one I’ll refer to as power voters. These are individuals for whom government is more a matter of business than of any kind of ideology. They know that money leads to power, and power ensures more money. It is their job to help finance political movements, and their influence on the media and the voting masses is great.

Last are the undecided voters – the high hanging fruit both parties covet. Less than 10% of swing state voters are still undecided, and according to polls, they will determine the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.

Democracy has often been referred to as a social experiment – a trial run based on trust in people as being both capable and worthy of self-rule. With the help of an ingenious system of checks and balances along with a commitment to a peaceful transfer of power, the experiment has sustained itself for 250 years. Yet it has never been in such peril as it is today when nearly half the people don’t trust the government. Many of them have already decided that if the election doesn’t go their way, it was rigged.

There are plenty of smart people in the world who don’t believe Democracy can sustain itself. They are of a philosophical mindset that characterizes the masses of people as innately lazy, brutish, gullible, vulgar, and incapable of keeping a social order. Therefore, a strong leader must protect the commoners from themselves, even if it means lying to them, withholding information from them, or seeking retribution against those who voice discontent. By these means, the leader maintains his rightful place atop the golden hill.

I believe in the integrity of our elections, and I trust those hard working poll workers who put in countless hours in November. But I worry about what might happen in the aftermath. I worry that the social experiment of a democratic republic will fail, and that we are indeed unworthy of the freedoms it guarantees.