So over a month ago, before the deadline arrived for voter registration in the state of New York, I encouraged one of my direct reports to check that she was registered to vote. She had done it inadvertently by getting her driver’s license at the DMV by checking a box on her application (since I had registered over 12 years ago, I figured times had changed since then to make it easier to register to vote – it’s so simple, but this country wants to make it so damn hard).

Today, she asked me where my voting location was. I was excited, thinking she was ready to vote tomorrow, as well, so I told her it was just four blocks from my apartment, and I was planning to go there right before the gym on the way to work in the morning. I asked her where hers was, and she had a solemn look on her face and said, “Yvonne, don’t be mad at me. I’m not going to vote. I messed up my voter registration. I lied to you. Voting has just never been a priority in my life.”

I started asking her about the steps we did together last month, that we checked her voter registration was in Chelsea, her own neighborhood, so all she had to do was go there tomorrow, but she said it wasn’t that simple, and insisted she was not voting and could not, and her boyfriend was really mad at her. So, I said, well, that’s too bad. And because I had no desire to see her face or talk to her or listen to all her bullshit, I grabbed my coat and went out for a long, long walk.

I just couldn’t believe it. Someone I actually hired for my team is going to be so lazy and selfish (and frankly just stupid) as to not vote? She’s going to completely take for granted the fact that women fought for the right to vote endlessly and we haven’t even had the right to vote in this country for even 100 years yet. It’s 2016, people. This should piss everyone off and be a point of embarrassment for us all. People have fought and died over granting the right to vote for us all, and she just wants to throw it all away by saying that “voting has just never been a priority in my life” — yes, because shopping for new clothes, having the perfect lip color, and managing her silly fashion blog are priorities in her life?! And what’s worse is that we sat down together and checked together at the end of September! I was infuriated and I could feel my face getting hot. If I could fire her just for lying to me and being so lazy and selfish, I would.

This is what angers me about people who say that all of us who understand the importance of voting need to spend time patiently educating those who do not understand why it’s important to vote and help them register instead of just criticizing them and doing what Bill Maher does — calling them part of this “stupid fucking country.” Well, guys — here’s a case in point: I explained to her why it was important in a very mild voice with enough time to get everything checked and done. I urged her in September to check her registration and make sure she had everything correct. She still failed. She didn’t care. She still didn’t get it. And that’s not my fault; that is the fault of our crappy education system here not instilling the importance of our freedom and the desire for progress, not regression, in society. And to some degree, I cannot really blame her. How would her life change if Trump became president vs. Hillary? For the most part, her life would remain the same — she’s a white working professional woman living in New York City with her white boyfriend working in finance who is from Connecticut. If a vote has no direct impact on her life, she doesn’t need to care, right? She doesn’t need to care about people like me and my husband, people of color and one who is an immigrant who consistently faces conscious and subconscious racism all the time. But I guess if someone “pussy-grabbed” her, maybe she would be concerned then? Who knows. I can’t even count on her acting if something like that happened to her. I’m so sick of women who fulfill gender stereotypes.