My husband and I ventured out this morning with the intention of waiting in line to vote early. We arrived at the closest early voting site an hour before it opened. The line was already stretched around the building and out to the nearest main road - at the very least, a 2-3 hour wait, if not more. We opted to wait until Tuesday, when more voting sites are open and lines will, hopefully, be shorter.
Now, I know that no matter how long the line is on Tuesday, I will wait to vote. But, as we shuffled back to our car, I could not help thinking about how many people will not be able to vote on Tuesday. Not everyone has the day off or understanding bosses that will accept late arrivals from lunch breaks. And not everyone has the time to wait in long lines during the early voting days.
Many countries hold important votes on weekends or days when the majority of the population does not work. Australia even makes people who do not vote pay a fine. We do neither.
Are we doing enough to allow citizens' voices to be heard? Or, is it in politicians best interest to make voting difficult?
13 comments:
I think it's a great thing that the line was that long. They say that this election is going to show the view of the American public than any other in a long time because everyone is voting. Good stuff!
As for penalizing people for not voting, I like the idea because I think everyone should vote, but it's not what the country is about. I just wish everyone wanted to vote, that would make life so much easier...
Our government is definitely not doing enough to compel citizens to vote. Numerous times throughout history, the president of the United States wasn't elected by the people, it was a mere representation of the aristocrats. When America first involved the "common man" in their election process through universal manhood suffrage, Andrew Jackson was elected. Despite some major flaws such as no education, he was still a successful president and helped all the citizens of America. Ever since then,the amount of votes from the middle to lower class have been declining because of the false belief that their vote doesn't matter. Politicians largely benefit from this because it enables them to continue enlarging the gap between the elite aristocrats from the rest of the country. To truly generate a president of the people, the government should follow Australia's method, and in turn the American people should vote for who they believe would best benefit the country.
I would have to say voting should be easier. At the least I would agree that the voting day should be a day-off type holiday or on the weekend. The waiting time in queue has to be reduced too. My step-dad had to wait nearly 3 hours during early-voting to cast his ballot. He told me though that many people took long to cast their ballots, because the amendments were tricky in wording. He told me that he thinks that the amendments were made tricky on purpose. He told me that it was another scheme by politicians to trick voters into voting for something they probably didn't want to vote for. I can definitely agree with my step-dad on his opinion.
I think that we should be able to vote online. It will be a lot easier and no wait, but there would probly be cheaters out there to try to take other peoples votes so its going to be hard to find and east way to vote.
It's not right that people have to sit on line for a very long time. The United States wants more people to vote so why don't they find other alternatives so that everyone can vote easier and quicker. One big reason why people are not getting in their votes is because the have work on election day. Their should be a law that says "NO WORK ON ELECTION DAY." That happeneded to my mom she had to work on election day, but she able to go to ealry voting and sit with my dad for 4 hours to vote. But other people in my mom's work weren't able to vote because they had to work.
I do think people's voices are being heard, but not as much as some would like. This past week, I went to four different colleges and all of them had little stands making sure people voted. Even our school had people going around making sure people who are 18 voted.
I believe that with all these big lines that it shows that people care about voting and will wait just so their voices are heard. The whole fine if you don't vote is a little too serious and is wrong. People have to right to vote, but have to right not to vote.
Then also voting should be made easier because of the lines. I'm sure politicians want it to harder for people to vote because they want their candidates to win. Most people in the government are control freaks and want to be unfair so they get what they want.
I happen to agree with penalizing people for not voting because alot of times i find that people will complain or be happy about how well of a job our president is doing.However, those same people that criticize are the ones that didnt vote in the beginning. I dont feel that people who opted not to vote should get the chance to say anything about the way things are going. Especially since the decision was left up to the american public.
I also agreee that waiting in line gave you the full voting experience.
I believe that enough is being done to allow the citizens' voice to be heard. The main repsonsiblity to vote really relies on the person. The person needs to make time to vote out of his or her schedule. People shouldn't care if bosses don't understand because voting is the privilege of every citizen. It is more convenient to have voting on weekends but that is why early voting was planned. It is not the politicians best interest to make voting difficult because they want to get as many votes as possible and this can only occur if voting is easier and more accesbile to all. Yet I believe that it is pretty easy for all to vote.
I don’t believe that this is deliberate. However, if there is a reason behind the weekday voting due to politics, then it would have to be because the parties only want those who have the opportunity to vote, those such as bosses of corporations, or high paid employees, or those that are "educationally qualified" to vote. I agree that the polls should open on the weekends, not on a Tuesday in the afternoon.
Of course it's great that lines were incredibly long this election. But they were due in part to the controversy of the election, as well as the historical aspect of it. Holding voting until the weekend seems to be a good idea, however, I don't know if there is a defined and legitimate reason as to why it is currently held on weekdays when most people aren't able to be vote, but I plan on researching that. Void of the knowledge, however, in that light politicians seem to be making it harder for us to vote. However, Americans were given the RIGHT to vote. It is not a defined duty, it is an implied duty; in that light, politicians aren't doing anything wrong. Fining citizens, however wouldn't be right for politicians. I do think, however, that the electoral college system is a bit unfair. I looked up the origin and sundry other factors about it on election day, but I didn't truly understand. I'll look it up again though to fully understand. Maybe there is, in fact, a strategy to all of this. Dry with facts, I don't think it's in politicians best interest to make voting difficult.
Gainesville, FL had our polls open on Saturday to vote. I had the same experience where i wen to the polls early to vote and the line was streched around the building. I had decided to wait until Tuesday, but a campaigner came to my door Saturday morning to remind me to vote and said the polls were open. As a teacher, its difficult to get to the polls before or after work, so Saturday was the best for me. Plus it was the day of an away UF football game, so the poll was nearly empty. This is the first time i have voted and felt the same "high" for the entire day after voting. I felt like i was actually doing something to help our country and making a difference by voting. Somehow when we are teaching children about this, we need to relate that feeling to them to make them see how importaint it is.
I personally believe that we are not doing enough to make our citizens voices be heard. Voting should be much more encouraged, there is a lot we could do to promote voting. For instance, in a restaurant near my house if you show them the I voted sticker any meal you choose will be half price, many other stores do similar deals like this to encourage voting. If we only took some of these ideas and made them much larger i guarantee many people would be more encouraged to vote. Also there should be more people out there speaking up on how important it is to vote. Maby, if more people were to do this more companies and employers would give there employees a break to do a civil duty and vote for the countries next president.
There is no doubt that the government should find a more efficient way of voting.However we have come a long way since the "paper and pencil" method.By choosing the democratic way of life he have non-verbally said that we as citizens want our voices heard to help mold this country.If people don't want to vote then why do they choose to live in a democratic society.I don't feel that the government should penalize people but they should run more adds about the benefits of voting.
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