Cartoon by: Martin Loftin
Vote Early. Vote Often.
If so few people vote, can America really call itself a democracy?
When turnout is low and voters become apathetic, control of the country falls into the hands of career politicians who favor donors over constituents.
Southwestern College also suffers from low voter turnout. In the spring ASO elections only 2 percent of students voted (362 of 20,000).
Some think the United States is the most democratic country in the world, but among the 35 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. ranks 31st for voter turnout. Belgium tops the list at 87.2 percent voter turnout, thanks to laws that make registration automatic and voting compulsory.
In the U.S. there are a number of obstacles that lower voter turnout. Eligible voters have to register and sometimes are required to comply with onerous voter ID laws. In the not-too-distant past “literacy” tests blocked minorities from registering. A typical “literacy” question was “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?”
The 1965 Voting Rights Act forbade discriminatory practices and authorized federal oversight of regions that depressed voting.
Voter turnout is still being stifled in states like Ohio and Texas by the reduction of voting locations that cause long lines. Millions of Americans waited hours in the 2012 presidential election to cast their vote. Ohio shuttered its precincts at 8 p.m. while hundreds of thousands of willing voters (mostly African-Americans) waited. They never got to vote.
During the 2016 primaries one in three polling places in Rhode Island were closed and closures in Arizona meant people had to wait five hours to vote.
The U.S. is home to 324 million people, but 103 million are ineligible to vote due to age, citizenship or felony convictions. About 88 million eligible adults are not registered to vote. Almost 73 million potential voters did not vote in the primaries, but are expected to cast ballots in the general election.
Of the 60 million who voted in the primaries, Democrats and Republicans each got about 30 million votes. Half of the primary voters chose other candidates. Only 14 percent of eligible voters, or nine percent of the country, voted for Clinton or Trump.
Now Americans must decide which of the two most unpopular candidates of any recorded election cycle should be the next president.
It seems likely that many people will feel disaffected and might not vote at all.
An article published in Perspectives on Politics titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” found that 90 percent of income earners in the U.S. had a statistically insignificant impact on public policy. Powerful interest groups and economic elites who can afford to hire lobbyists and make donations to politicians are shaping American policy.
Established politicians, particularly conservatives, benefit the most from low voter turnout. A study titled “Regular Voters, Marginal Voters and the Electoral Effects of Turnout” by University of Chicago professor Anthony Fowler found that the majority of registered voters who end up skipping election day lean liberal and would have supported a Democratic candidate.
Had more people voted in the 2000 election, the Supreme Court would not have had the chance award Bush the presidency. After 2012 presidential election, the 2014 midterm elections experienced a sharp decline in voter turnout that allowed Republicans to make sweeping gains in the Senate and as well as state and local races. If voters had turned out in numbers similar to the 2012 election, Republicans would not have taken over the country.
A study called “Estimating the Electoral Effects of Voter Turnout” by Thomas G. Hansford and Brad T. Gomez concluded that low voter turnout greatly favors incumbent politicians so that even established Democrats are disinclined to enable policies that would increase voter turnout.
Career politicians have been allowed to take advantage of low voter turnout and focus on pleasing their donors more than their actual constituents. They are working against the American people by gerrymandering districts that give established politicians an electoral advantage that makes it harder for outsiders to get elected.
It is possible to reverse this trend, but it requires a concerted effort to unify the many different voting blocks without being distracted by political smoke screens and propaganda.
There are many different routes to restoring power to the American public. One of the most promising groups is Wolf PAC. Its members are working to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision which ruled that a corporation has the same rights to free speech as an actual human and that monetary donations count as free speech. Wolf PAC is working to overturn that decision by passing an Amendment through a Constitutional Convention in order to circumvent the Congress and Senate that greatly profit from Citizens United. In November, California will have a chance to add itself to the list of stats seeking to get money out of politics with Prop 59.
There are so many problems affecting the U.S., including perpetual warfare, the prison-industrial complex, climate change and immigration reform, but the 113th Congress has been one of the least effective and many are up for reelection.
This country needs a clean slate and should vote out all the incumbents who have failed to do their jobs for years if not decades. Career politicians take advantage of name recognition they do not deserve in order to stay in office.
Just like taxes, voting should be a mandatory service that is not an undue burden for those deciding the future of the country.
Instead of closing down voting locations, more polling stations should be available to make voting a quick and easy process. Instead of voter registration being opt-in, more states should follow Oregon’s lead by making registration automatic at age 18 and require people to opt-out if they do wish to be registered. Instead of making people have to balance their busy lives with voting, America should have a voting holiday that incentivizes people to participate in the political process. Instead of only voting every four years, Americans must vote at every opportunity in order to make America a healthy democracy again.
