As mentioned on previous pages, the idea of having a federal holiday for voting is not a new idea. As expressed in previous pages, in the recent years, the idea has become popular with Bernie’s Bill, The Democracy Day Act. However, in addition there are a handful of organizations and movements that are also trying to make voting day become a holiday. Surprisingly, Rainn Wilson created a video portraying how antiquated the laws surrounding voting day are. The video explains why America votes on a Tuesday and how irrelevant it is to still practice voting on that day. Wilson also poked fun at the notorious voter identification laws which also have been proven to be fatuous. Wilson’s video helped provide a connection between how tedious and
A very controversial topic in the United States is whether or not Americans should be required to vote. Voting is a very essential piece to democracy, but many Americans today are not attending their voting location and supporting the candidate they feel is best. In recent elections, just 60% of registered voters casted their vote for a candidate. This is an issue that many people are not happy about, but whether or not there is reason to fix it is the other side to the case. Voter participation is an issue that has been going on for years, and no laws are in place currently to bring it up. Americans have been proud to live in a “free country”, and a law forcing citizens to vote may be against America’s principles. Compulsory voting should
At a federal level law, I propose that it will be mandatory for all U.S citizens to vote on election days. The complete law is as written out on the statement below:
America is facing an all-time low in voter participation. Since 2014 the voting population has decreased by “thirty-six and four-tenths percent” (DelReal). Many theories explain the stigma of voting in America. According to the Wolfgang “the leading theory is: many minority voters are discriminated upon and do not believe their vote will count.” Many laws created infringe on the rights of Americans, however, when citizens do not vote the government seizes control on controversial issues , which in turn creates solutions that are less than satisfactory to the civilians.
Many people in America find it difficult to even get to the ballot box on election day. Some say that they can’t get off from work because they live paycheck to paycheck and they would have to work overtime to make up for the pay they didn’t gain that work day. This is a problem that seems to be leading to substandard representation of those at, near or below the poverty line. Suggestions have been made to potentially make election day a holiday so everyone can get off working to go through the long ballot lines and I believe this could potentially be the right step to take to ensure more people are adequate representation. To make election day even more efficient, it would probably be a good idea to have mail-in ballots for every state along with election day being a holiday.
The topics discussed in this research paper are some of the political issues that the people of the United States face everyday. Starting with the Voter ID laws, which were first enacted in the 1950’s by South Carolina (1). Since than it has been a method used by registered voters to present some type of formal identification before voting at there local government poll. This created a way to insure that residents of the united states did not vote multiple times and that the actual resident registered to vote was being represented. Although the disadvantages of the Voter ID laws are also endless, by enforcing identification to be present during the time voting period people who did not have the proper documentation were not allowed to vote. This created a demising situation between people who were legally registered to vote but did not have the proper identification document to vote therefore creating less votes in the voting process.
Compulsory voting is not an efficient way to respond to the problem of voter disengagement. The government should look at the reason behind the lack of voting enthusiasm rather than try to mask the problem by making voting mandatory. There are many reasons why people choose not to vote; for example, they could be unsupportive of all of the electoral candidates, they could have no interest whatsoever in politics, or even simply be unable to get to their polling place because of other obligations. In the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, people of this faith choose not to vote because of their faith. By making voting mandatory, this would take away not only our freedom of choosing to vote, but in a sense our freedom to practice
Living in a nation based on democracy, where a citizen’s voice is the equivalent of casting a vote in political elections, the majority of American citizens eligible to vote do not participate in elections. The rationale behind voter non-participation varies among individuals and demographic groups; however, they all share a connection regarding their feelings towards their treatment by the country's political system. Minority voters such as blacks and hispanics are a demographic group highly faced with disenfranchisement in regards to political elections due to oppression. North Carolina’s Voter ID laws are a prime example of how minority voters are being shut out.
With key aspects of the Voting Rights Act being returned to the regulation of the state governments, there has been a trend of the defunding and stricter rules directed toward voting registration drives. These drives have long been problematic with the concepts of “priming” and “fraud” being discussed in relation to their existence, but they have played a huge role in the outreach program to increase overall voter turnout. There have been arguments that they decrease the urgency of the vote which has also been applied to early voting periods and Election Day Registration acts, but they succeeded in increasing the voter turnout rate overall and decreasing the wait lines at the poll, bringing forth the question as to why voting urgency would be a necessity in the process of the vote. Since the changes to the VRA, many states have gone forth to defund these drives, seeing them as having no purpose and being a waste of money. Many states that kept the drives added strict regulations. These include not allowing blank registration
In our country today, we are so fortunate and blessed that we have the rights we have. Voting is very special because we get to exercise a right that many countries don’t have. Many countries have one ruler that dictates how everyone is going to live, how their economic system is going to work, and how they will worship. The United States is blessed to have democracy, where we have freedom of religion and the right to vote for the people who we believe stand firm on our similar platform. On November 1st, turning eighteen years of age, I was looking forward to my first time to vote. The year leading up to the election my eyes were opened to the fact that there is much division in the United States. The country has forgotten the “Pledge
However, logic dictates that a more legitimate vote would lead to a more legitimate outcome regarding politicians who are elected, and therefore better representation for the people of the United States. Not only are states' rights, minorities, politicians, affected, but the entire country is affected by voter identification restrictions. The political environment has a climate that is very tense to say the least. For the first time in decades, a majority of both parties view the other party as very unfavorable (Chokshi, 2016). With partisanship higher than it has been in decades, it is important that the public views elections as fair and just. This climate is not conducive to change and it seems the gridlock seen in the government today may not change any time soon. Hence, the landmark case of Shelby County v. Holder may simply be the only policy in place that can guide things and the actual decisions may be left up to the states unless cases are taken to the Supreme Court to create
As election day falls on a week day, many people work or are at school preventing them to go to the polls and vote because their time is being taken up. Voter turnout is such an important aspect in politics because without the participation of citizens, there would a demise in democracy. Although voter turnout was low in the previous election, making election day a national holiday would increase voter turnout as people would get the day off from work and school. With the abundance of time people would have during election day as a national holiday, it allows them to go to the polls and vote. Citizens of the United Stated should not have to face obstacles for them to vote, but should get the day off and let their voices be heard to pick the next president as it is a constitutional
There is a social taboo attached to not voting in the general elections. Despite this at this time, there are many forms of encouragement to vote, and many voters are motivated by the ridicule method. The title of The Root’s Article (October 8th, 2016), “If You’re Not Voting in This Election, You’re Ridiculous”, demonstrates the social pressure found in general election voting. Since there is a large population of voters who feel ignorant towards the information presented in the primaries, there is less buzz surrounding the primary
Every four years, on the third Monday, in October, Canadians take part in elections ("Canada Federal Election 2015." ). Candidates go around within their electoral district to talk about the ideas they have and changes they hope to change. The position that candidates are running for, is to become part of the House of Commons ("House of Commons of Canada."). Elections are going to take place on Monday, October 19, 2015; voters can go to the polls and vote for candidates that will represent them ("Canada Federal Election 2015." ). Canada has fixed elections in order to have election on a regular cycle, but can occur before the “said date” ("Fixed Election Dates In Canada."). Overall, elections for House of Commons are preferred to occur,
The right to vote, a power to participate in selecting leaders by ballot, derived from North America’s English origins (Kernell et al. 2014, p. 485). Throughout American History, voting rights began as privilege for those with a certain extent of wealth, a privilege that many had sought and longed for. Due process of many national movements, credited to the women’s suffrage movement and civil rights movement, the right to vote had evolved from the limited amount of eligible voters into a human right, that of every American citizen. Low turnout rates in national election is major problem caused by voter lack of motivation/interest and can be solved through systematic enhancements that lower the opportunity cost of voting.
The big dilemma here is should we vote for the "wasted vote" for a third party candidate that we know based on statistics they will not win, or do we not and vote where the rest of the people will vote for. We too every now and again take this difficulty gently - we ask how it truly matters or we don't ask by any stretch of the imagination. We have ended up self-satisfied following quite a while a representation that does not experience our benchmarks and now and again we have generally expected less from our delegates. We grumble severely about the political procedure and the absence of choices, however when a decent alternative tags along we offer into the framework about which we have griped. Voting in favor of an outsider hopeful is not