VOTING
VOTING:
The long steady march of inclusion of American citizens in the democratic process
is being threatened. Voter suppression and gerrymandered congressional districts
must be set right after the 2020 election by legislation reapportionment and enforcement that upholds the voting rights of all citizens.
In the last presidential election, 100 million people or 43% of eligible voters failed to vote. This make our voter turn out one of the lowest in the developed world.
There is a great partisan uproar over voter suppression and voter fraud. According to Christopher Ingraham in the November 12, 2016 edition of the Washington Post,
“Some of these non-voters may have been discouraged by long lines or policies designed to suppress participation among certain demographic groups, like minority voters. But the research, like a 2014 study from the Government Accountability Office, suggests these policies can at most affect turnout rates by a percentage point or two.”
That still leaves 95 million or so voters who did not turn out. There are any number of things policymakers could do at the margins, like
holding elections on weekends,
making election day a federal holiday,
automatically registering voters, or
providing generous access to early and no-excuse absentee voting.
How can we do better?
For the founding fathers voting was the means by which citizens exercised democracy to create a the more perfect union. Even so, the right to vote was denied for many populations for centuries of US history. Over the years the right to vote has been expanded to include different populations:
1776 – land-owning white men.
1874 – Seneca Falls, Abolitionists and Women’s suffrage groups organize.
1856 – All white men can vote.
1868 – 14th Amendment grants citizenship to African Americans without the right to vote.
1870 – 15th prohibits race as basis of state or federal denial of the right to vote.
1872 – Susan B. Anthony and Soujourner Truth arrested for trying to vote.
1890 – Wyoming grants women the right to vote.
1920 – Women citizen allowed to vote; excluding some Native American and Asians.
1924 – Indian Citzenship Act grant Native Americans full citizenship while some states deny the vote.
1952 – McCarran-Walter Act gives right to citizenship and voting to Asian-Americans.
1961 – Give DC resident right to vote for president but not for Congressional representation.
1965 – Voting Rights Act removes obstacles that kept people of color from voting.
1971 – voting age lowered to 18 (old enough to fight in Vietnam/ old enough to vote).
1993 – National Voter Registration Act making it easier to register at DMV’s and public assistance centers. 2000 – Federal court rules: citizens of Puerto Rico and Quam cannot vote in federal elections (not states.)
You are eligible to vote in federal elections if:
- You are a U.S. citizen (either by birth or naturalization)
- You meet your state’s residency requirements
- You are 18 year old. (Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or register to vote if they will be 18 before the general election).
- You must be legally registered to vote in your jurisdiction in order to be able to vote in federal elections. State laws vary on voter requirements.
Widespread voter suppression—particularly against historically marginalized groups—is a reoccurring problem in the United States. Voter suppression measures and other Election Day problems kept millions of eligible Americans from participating in the 2018 mdterm elections.
These include: Voter registration problems, Voter purges, Strict voter ID and ballot requirements, Voter confusion, Voter intimidation and harassment, Poll closures and long lines, Malfunctioning voting equipment, Disenfranchisement of justice-involved individuals, Gerrymandering.
Since voting is managed by the states, it is important that citizens in every state assure that state regulations create no barriers that prevent voters’ access to the polls.
Every ten years, after the census, the number of seats in the house of representatives is reapportioned according to the results of the census. The number of voting seats in the House of Representatives was capped at 435 the Reapportionment Act of 1929. (Reapportionment also determines the size of each states representation in the U.S. Electoral College.)
In recent years Gerrymandering, the manipulation of the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party or another has become an issue. While both parties have tried to draw districts in their favor, gerrymandering seems to be a strategy of the republican party to establish a permanent majority in the house of representatives.
Those who take their civic responsibility seriously will watch over the rules being adopted by congress for the coming census and the legislative elections in their state where the boundaries are drawn. The party in the majority has great power in the drawing of congressional boundaries.
You are eligible to vote in federal elections if:
- You are a U.S. citizen (either by birth or naturalization)
- You meet your state’s residency requirements
- You are 18 year old. (Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or register to vote if they will be 18 before the general election).
- You must be legally registered to vote in your jurisdiction in order to be able to vote in federal elections. State laws vary on voter requirements.
Every voter is responsible to determine that they are prepared to vote. You can check out your readiness to vote at https://www.rockthevote.org/
Please leave your comment below: