Jessie Sisavat
Professor Smith
Pols 116
December 13, 2016
What Is America’s Voting Equipment’s Major Problem?
For several decades, the American people have been skeptical if their votes count due to the uncertainty of various voting methods. The election process is marred with dissatisfaction and inaccuracy in governmental elections. Voting means a lot to citizens because it is what gets the people’s voices heard. There are voters that are uncertain of trusting the candidates that will make their laws and regulations, however, they still have the power to vote them out from office. But when different types of voting equipment have problems those issues affect all voters. There are ways of voting that can sometimes fail, and the discovery of fraud in the voting process can make people question the election results. The right to vote is what many Americans believe is the most essential part of being an American in a democratic nation. To keep the American citizens’, trust the voting operation system must work properly and establish that the people’s votes are counted. The American election administration is facing the new generation of technology that is designed for voting. The management of hardware and software can be a great challenge for many upcoming elections throughout the years ahead. Today, there are several methods of counting votes with equipment that are used for the election system. The voting methods are Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE), Optical Scan Paper
Being able to cast my first vote in the 21st century is a privilege. My generation needs to accept their patriotic responsibility and vote because many reforms are needed in order to carry us into the new millennium. Voting reforms are necessary to inspire political participation for other modifications and adjustments needed in areas such as health care, education, and Social Security, all which we as young people will face in the future. Participation in elections is necessary to facilitate and enable progress, but our present day system of voting is expiring by frustrated Americans.
Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter
“legal precision” about what is constituted a vote. In due course, the candidates, nor the
Many women and African American men had long dreamed to have the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civil Rights Movement. The freedom to vote is now held by a majority because of the fight by the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and the African Americans and women who fought for their right to
Voter suppression happens everywhere around the world. As an immigrant this topic seemed so interesting because I always thought of voter suppression as something that may just happen in a third world country. In a dictatorship country government is not afraid to let the nation know that although there is a voting but ultimately they are the ones who decide the fate of everyone. After watching the videos and reading the assignments I realized that voter suppression/fraud can happen in many shapes and forms. It could be done without any physical violence or any obvious act but it still can do the same amount of damage to a nation. Voter suppression in a nation like America that is supposedly one the freest countries politically has to happen a lot smoother and a lot less obvious that one in a dictatorship kind of government.
For several decades, the American people are skeptical if their votes count due to various voting method. The election process is divided with dissatisfaction and inaccuracy in governmental elections. Set from the voters addressing how they vote, it still means a lot to them because it is what gets the people voice heard. There are voters that are uncertain of trusting the candidates that will make their laws and regulations, however many voters are still incline they have the power to vote them out from office. But when different types of voting equipment’s have their own problems it becomes prevalent to voters. There are ways of voting that would sometimes fail and the discovery of fraud in the voting process can make people question the American election. The rights and privilege to vote is what many Americans believe is the most essential part of being a democracy nation and an American. By keeping the American citizen trust the voting operation system must work properly and establish that the people’s votes are counted for. The American election administration is facing the new generation of technology that is designed for the usage of voting. The management of hardware and software can be a great challenge for many upcoming election throughout the years ahead. Today, there are several methods of voting equipment’s that are used for the election system. They’re
The research will examine voting rights in relation to voting right inequalities and the society’s effort to have an all minority groups included in the civic process. The research will look into several historical factors that contributed to voting rights inequalities and how the society has evolved to solve issues related to the right to vote.
Ratified in 1868, the fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection of all persons under the law. In the 1960’s though, African Americans were still being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. After the broadcast of 600 peaceful African Americans being attacked and beaten after attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, President Lynden Johnson decided it was time to create some legislation to prevent incidences such as this from happening in the future. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been hailed as some of “the most far-reaching bills on civil rights in modern times” (Schmidt et. al. 2010, 98). At that time in history, they were exactly what the country
In this essay, I would like to discuss the major obstacles to voting, recent changes to overcome voting barriers and the political influence of changed rules. Low turnout in the U.S. reflects that there are obstacles for people to voting and changes to overcome these obstacles may also bring new problems to different social groups. I will elaborate on these aspects in the following parts.
The purpose of this recommendation report is to recommend the best practice for voter identification and consistent voting laws in the United States. The audience for this report includes United States citizens, US Congress, those aspiring to become US Citizens. Based on my research, I recommend that the officials of this country come together to create equal and strict voting laws to ensure the integrity of Presidential Elections.
In 2000 Riverside County California decided to spend 14 million dollars to make their voting system all electronic. This decision was made on the basis that in 1998 more than one million dollars was spent on paper ballots (in Riverside), but when only half of the county voted the extras had to be trashed. For local elections their new electronic system fetched a 99% approval rating from voters (Wired.com article). The only foreseeable downside to this technology is the start up price and with internet voting not likely due to security issues, this maybe the best solution.
But, as of today there is no solid way of knowing if someone is or is not trying to sneak in more than one ballot. “I don’t know if anybody knows how prevalent it is, because the only time you find out is when somebody gets caught.” (Guzman, 1) And the statistics of that happening is .00000013 percent or 26 out of every 197 million cases. Because there are multiple techniques that can and have been used time after time again. Although this is the case there has been some attempt to prevent it. Voter ID law are one example, but it is far from the perfect solution. First, it prevents only one type of voter’s fraud, voter impersonation. And, second, the voter’s ID laws has been ruled as discrimination; so the rule is not enforced everywhere and the public can vote without
The term electronic voting is a blanket term used to describe an array of voting methods that operate using electronic technology. Electronic-Voting (also known as Biometric Voting) is the use of computer-based machine to display an election ballot and record the vote. E-voting machines typically use touch screens as the data entry method for a voter's selection. E-voting is different from online voting, where users vote over the Internet. Under the e-voting system, polling stations would be equipped with e-voting machines which are also known as Direct-Recording Electronic voting systems (DRE). The voter is required to touch the icon next to the intended party's symbol, on the screen, which would then be registered on
The government has passed the Help America Vote Act, after the 2000 elections voting problem occurred. The act set aside the money to help fund the purchasing of new and improved voting equipment (Voting Technology Project). Some of the major improvements with touch screens or simple
A voting system has four characteristics: accuracy, anonymity, scalability, and speed. Current electronic voting machines claim to