| Voting: a democratic duty |
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| Written by Anne-Marije Rook - Argonaut | ||||
| Thursday, 18 September 2008 | ||||
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Voting — it may be the most important thing a citizen can do. Yet with Election Day merely a month and a half away, I still hear my fellow young college students say they won’t vote. And that makes me nervous. Why wouldn’t you vote? The usual responses are “all politicians are the same anyway,” “my vote won’t make a difference,” “I don’t like either candidate” or my personal favorite, “I don’t care about politics.” Politics can indeed seem complex, boring or at times, unsuccessful. But the decisions made in politics affect us all in every aspect — from the careers we choose, the education we receive, the food we consume, the medicine we take, the streets we drive on, the money we store in the banks and the people we can marry. Everything comes back to politics. If anything, the current people in office have shown us the election of one person can change the course of history. Things might have looked very different had George W. Bush not been elected. Things like War on Terror, No Child Left Behind Act, Katrina aid and the economy come to mind. I find nothing more upsetting than hearing people criticize the way things are and then choose not to vote. And if it is not about disinterest, then it’s about the argument of the democratic duty to vote versus a democratic right to abstain. In 2007, a bill was introduced into the California Legislature requiring voter registration as a pre-requisite before students receive a high school diploma. The “100 percent Registration Project,” created by FairVote.org, initiated this idea. The organization believes high schools are the ideal environment to introduce young Americans to voting and stresses the importance of active participation in our democratic system. The introduction of this bill received mixed reviews, and amendments to the bill removed the graduation requirement element and re-wrote the bill to simply require high schools to continue to provide voter registration forms to students. I don’t think this was a bad idea at all. We live in a democracy. “We the people” is what this country was based on, yet a large percentage of “we the people” don’t vote. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2004 presidential elections saw a record voter turnout, which still was only 64 percent. The percentage of people who determine the outcomes of elections and the consequent decisions that affect us all is a small percentage of the population. In 2004, the young vote (ages 18 to 29), our vote, made up only 17 percent of the vote. Thus, by not voting, we’re letting the predominately white, 45-to-59 age group dominate us. As students, and thanks to technological innovations allowing us to find information at the click of a mouse, we possess a unique socially conscious world-view. Sept. 11, 2001, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina have made us more aware and active than the generation before us, the now 30-year-olds. These historic events forced us to turn to our elected officials for leadership, and many of us think we have been disappointed. Now we have the chance to choose for better, more progressive leadership. There are 44 million eligible young voters in this country. In 2004, only 20.1 million of us voted. Let’s do better this year — after all, we are students; we are the visionaries, humanitarians and activists, the hopeful of today and the leaders of tomorrow. We live in a day and age where ignorance is not acceptable. There is a well of information everywhere you look. So, now is the time to read up about your candidates and to see which duo you feel will run this country the best. Don’t agree with either? Write in a third or intelligently vote for “the lesser of two evils.” Go out and vote. And vote wisely.  Add as favorites (8) | Views: 252
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