test From a newspaper editorial: [The recent use of mail ballots in Oregon’s election of a U.S. senator has led some people to hail this as the wave of the future in our democratic republic]. *[We do not share that enthusiasm].* *[The primary advantage of the mail ballot is that it requires little time]* and [effort on the part of the voter]. [We think that also is a primary shortcoming of this process]. It is worth a little of both our time and our energy to exercise the right to vote, and that personal investment should serve to make us a bit more conscious of the value of that opportunity. From a newspaper editorial: [The recent use of mail ballots in Oregon’s election of a U.S. senator has led some people to hail this as the wave …show more content…
[We think that also is a primary shortcoming of this process]. It is worth a little of both our time and our energy to exercise the right to vote, and that personal investment should serve to make us a bit more conscious of the value of that opportunity. From a newspaper editorial: [The recent use of mail ballots in Oregon’s election of a U.S. senator has led some people to hail this as the wave of the future in our democratic republic]. *[We do not share that enthusiasm].* *[The primary advantage of the mail ballot is that it requires little time]* and [effort on the part of the voter]. [We think that also is a primary shortcoming of this process]. It is worth a little of both our time and our energy to exercise the right to vote, and that personal investment should serve to make us a bit more conscious of the value of that opportunity. From a newspaper editorial: [The recent use of mail ballots in Oregon’s election of a U.S. senator has led some people to hail this as the wave of the future in our democratic republic]. *[We do not share that enthusiasm].* *[The primary advantage of the mail ballot is that it requires little time]* and [effort on the part of the voter]. [We think that also is a primary shortcoming of this process]. It is worth a little of both our time and our energy to exercise the right to vote, and that personal investment should serve to make us a bit more conscious of the value of that
Americans are fortunate enough to have the right to vote, so we should take opportunity to be heard. “...many Americans do not vote” (Doc BE). Some Americans do not take the chance to vote. For example, “Since World War II, no presidential election has ever involved 65% or more of registered voters!” (Doc BE). Voting is important because, “People express their consent or disapproval in many different ways” (Doc BE).
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
To every political system there are many positives and negatives and one critique of compulsory voting systems is that informal and uninterested voting is increased. It has been advocated that compulsory voting brings a large amount of “uninterested voters” to the polls and in turn cast votes that are clearly inconsistent with their own political values compared to those who are more informed and motivated voluntary voters (Selb and Latchat, 2009). In this case the primary concern is when people are forced to vote they will either pick a candidate at random or spoil their ballot which consequently, does not make the outcome of the election representative of the people’s interests. If certain individuals are not interested in politics they should not be forced to contribute in one of the most salient political statements practiced in Canada (Selb and Latchat, 2009). They have the right to choose their level of political participation.
In our system of government we are privileged with the option to take part in the political process that runs the country. It is our right to vote that lets the people influence change in policy and set the guidelines that politicians must follow to be elected representatives. This precious ability, which is most coveted in most non-democratic countries, is taken for granted in our own.
Problem/Proof/Interest/Perspective: Since the end of WWII voter turnout has never exceeded 65% of the electorate and it’s become a new and frightening trend to not exercise many of the rights and the democracy our predecessors fought so hard to establish.There is a growing voter gap between low income individuals and the elite that is rendering our electoral system ineffective thus weakening our country as a whole. According to the Pew Research Center “Almost half—46 percent—of nonvoters have family incomes less than $30,000 per year, while only 19 percent of likely voters are from low-income families.” As a young American who hasn't even gotten the chance to exercise such democratic rights, I want to be able to cast my vote knowing it will
In this weeks Anthony Downs reading we were able to use the knowledge we have gained about the structure of institutions so far from our discussions and texts and apply it to voting in politics. In “An Economic Theory of Democracy” Downs focused on the calculus behind voting and voter turnout to draw the conclusion that there is no point in voting. When Downs was explaining the reasoning behind voting he spoke of the utility income that the government provides to us; these benefits of utilities are the incentives that should determine the way that we vote and show its importance. Using the idea of looking to maximize utilities to determine how you vote was a fascinating idea to me and make me question he inefficiencies that exist in voting today that cause people to vote based on different reasons. So the irrational ways we base our voting decisions on (instead of utility) is what I primarily focus on as these voting habits show how citizens vote off superficial issues, not campaign platforms.
Election day operations play a huge role in increasing or in this case even decreasing voter turnout. In just the past primary elections the attorney general’s office received a record number of complaints ranging from issues with poll workers to broken machines. During the recent primary day, the office received more than 1,000 complaints compared to the 150 complaints received during the presidential elections in 2012.1 Broken machines and human error are inevitable problems that we try to minimize but we have to be realistic enough to expect, however problems such as those caused by improper training of poll workers or confusion caused by illegible ballots, should never occur. If voters are faced with issues such as polls sites opening late, long lines, broken machines that remain broken for hours, etc. New York may continue to see decreasing voter turnout as there is a possibility that these bad experiences can deter a voter from voting that day, or worse, ever again. Therefore, it is very important for the New York City Board of Elections to address these concerns dealing with election day operations, more specifically, enhancing poll worker recruitment and training and making the ballot design more efficient.
This system could facilitate voters by sending them emails to inform voters of incoming elections, thereby reducing possibilities of missing any elections as well as voters. Further, by shifting the burden of registering from voters to government, the automatic voter registration could simplify the voting system. One time registering is valid for life unless people choose to opt out. Since government will keep eyes on the registration to make sure that every eligible voter will be correctly on voter rolls, there will be less opportunity to see the mismatched information listed above. In general, the innovative system could be helpful in creating a process that is more convenient and less error-prone, which could make voter rolls more comprehensive and, as a result, is likely to increase
It is worth a little of both our time and our energy to exercise the right to vote, and that personal investment should serve to make us a bit more conscious of the value of that opportunity.
In this passage I will be discussing my point of view about paper ballots and how they're helpful in many ways. Paper ballots can be better to use then EVMs because they're on paper, and it would be harder
some may have an opinon on how paper ballots aren't the best voting option because of how the united states have 33.7 million people of voting age with disabilities that are 20% less likely to vote due to accessibility issues. Well paper ballots and EVM's you have to travel to get to both so accessibility shouldnt be a flaw just on paper ballots. paper ballots are simple and what the people are used to. theres more trust in voting on paper than on a machine that can be faulty or record the wrong thing or even stop
Moving away from electronic voting and finding an alternate way to vote that is the most precise and secure course of action.
Voting is typically considered inconvenient, time-consuming and might even seem pointless. Voting is subjectively taxing. It yields an interval to register and to understand the candidates' ideology. On election day, you leave work early, stand in extensive lines or struggle through severe weather, conscious that the probabilities your miniscule vote will make a disparity amongst the thousands or millions that are likely to be zero. "The probability that I'll be the deciding vote in the 2008 presidential election is much smaller than the chance that I'll get hit by a car on the way to the polls," says Florida Atlantic University's Kevin Lanning, PhD.
If their ballot can be identified by a third party, such as an election official, then voters can engage in vote selling. A common counter measure to this tactic is to consider any ballot with inessential marks as a spoiled ballot. The downside to this counter measure is that it is easy for election officials to spoil a ballot, especially during a manual recount.