Please, please, please, get out and vote today.

While all citizens should vote, we feel it’s especially important for members of the startup community to exercise their franchise for two main reasons.

First, there’s a movement afoot for the startup community to be more active in economic policy. John Ruffolo of OMERS Ventures and BlackBerry Co-Founder Jam Balsillie are urging mature companies to speak out with a stronger voice. Having credibility in a national discussion starts with having members who get out and vote.

Second, startup founders tend to be young and the country desperately needs young people to vote. There’s a massive under-representation of young people in choosing our government, and it’s affecting the outcome of elections. Some 61 percent of Entrevestor’s readers are under 35 years of age. So we hope we can encourage more of our readers to vote.

Need another reason to vote? Remember this: if you don’t vote, you double the influence of someone who disagrees with you.