Essay On Voting In America
Introduction
Voting in America is difficult. There are many obstacles the potential voter has to run through in order to have their voice heard, and even, their candidate of choice may not win. They have to struggle with paperwork to get registered to vote, which also registers them for the eligible list of candidates for the jury pool, a task nobody wants anything to do with. Then after the hard paperwork and jury duty comes Election Day. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which leads to great confusion as to what day the elections are on. Even worse are the municipal elections which vary from town to town, and county to county, leaving masses of voters confused as to what day they have to go out and make their voices heard.
After all of this, imagine the group of …show more content…
eligible registered voters who are aware of what day the elections are. Now, remember that Election Day is on a Tuesday in November. This leads to a few more issues when it comes to voting, many blue collar middle class working Americans cannot make it to the polls because they cannot afford the time off from work to make their voices heard. Then, you get to the last group of voters, who have the time to go vote, however, according to the weather channel, five percent of registered voters said that they would not go out and vote if it was raining. When it comes to Chicago, one of Illinois’ biggest voting blocks, the Illinois State Weather Survey states that November averages 37.1 inches of rain, so it is very likely that it will rain on Election Day, and that five percent of voters will not show up to the polls because of it.
This begs the question, why do people choose not to vote? This paper hopes to answer that question through the use of analysis of literature and statistics. There are many reasons for people not to vote, this paper has already laid out quite a few, but above all, the reason people do not vote is because they feel as if the system is inherently rigged to make sure that they do not get their voices heard, and their opinions represented.
Analysis
One of the biggest problems in the eyes of the voters that leads to political apathy is the idea that they no longer pick politicians, politicians pick them vis-a-vis gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing electoral districts in a way that it benefits the party or interests of those who are doing the drawing. This can affect both sides of the aisle, however seems to benefit Republicans more often, as they are more likely to hold state representative seats, which is where the redistricting happens. By far this is one of the leading causes of apathy, whereas other issues can seem to be resolved by electing new representatives, this problem seems, in the eyes of the voter, to be a negative action of politicians that cannot be changed by voting because they deliberately and, once again in the eyes of the voter, maliciously, divided up who gets to vote where in order to garner the power for their parties. According to Butera, gerrymandering leads to legislators who are not responsive to the needs and wants of those he represents, as he sees no risk for not following their whims, and no reward for sticking his head out in order to better serve his
constituency.
One example of which that he brings up is the 2013 government shutdown, during which, most of the blame was placed on the Republican Party. However, despite the polls coming through that the American people blamed the Republicans, they chose to continue the shutdown in order to get their way, seeing no true electoral risk to them and their party members if they chose to continue with their actions that Americans thought were petty and merely a political ploy. (Butera, 2014) This turned out to be true as just a year after the shutdown, the Republican Party was able to both bolster its hold on the House of Representatives, and garner a majority in the Senate. This leads to the next point, due to gerrymandering, voters feel that their vote is not effective and that they are wasting their time voting. They think that the American democracy is no longer representative of the ideals of the American people, and to an extent, they are right. Theoretically, in a truly representative democracy, if one party were to receive sixty percent of the vote, and the other receive forty percent, the seats would be more or less mathematically lined up with the number of votes for each party, plus or minus a few seats. However in America in 2012, after receiving a meager fifty one percent of the popular vote, the Republican Party was able to take seventy five percent of the seats that were up for grabs. (Butera, 2014)
Now, this is an obvious problem that is caused by gerrymandering which has caused the some people to give up hope in the system as a whole and quit voting. However, another part of the problem is that when people quit voting the majority of those who continue to vote tend to be of a similar mind set, in this case conservative Republican. Those who vote Republican also tend to be those who are more likely to vote overall, especially in midterm elections, in which we see the highest rate of non-voting, especially among young people, who are more likely to be cynical of the system in place as they have not seen it any different and think that it is truly resistant to change. By and large it tends to be young people who don’t vote, partly because they feel isolated from the system and partly because the importance of voting is not something that is easily seen during high school, where you are still sheltered by your parents, and are less likely to be working a full time job and pay taxes on your earnings.
Now, no one likes feeling that they are being represented by someone who doesn’t, on a racial or ethical level, stand for them. That is one reason that African Americans as a group are both unlikely to vote, and when they do, they are likely to vote Democrat, despite holing ideals that are more in line with the Republican Party. Congress in a building filled with old white men, even more so for the Republican Party. Pew Research came out with an article declaring that the 114th congress is the most diverse in history. However, when combined together all Ethnic Minorities only make up seventeen percent of both houses of Congress. As for the different parties, minorities hold seventy four seats for Democrats, yet only eleven for Republicans. (Krogstad, 2015) This is not only because ethnic minorities are more likely to side with Democrats on policy issues, as is evidenced by African Americans tending to be more conservative, however still choosing to vote for Democrats. It is because the minorities feel ostracized and bullied by the Republicans, often either making them vote for Democrats, or not vote at all.
On top of this, Republicans tend to see the idea of a non-voting block of African Americans as a good thing as they have started in recent year to string together legislation that effectively makes it harder for those of lower economic and social standing to be able to make their voice heard. These laws are similar in intention to those of the Jim Crow South. They are instituted in order to make it harder for a certain group of people, in both cases African Americans, to be able to vote on Election Day through a number of methods. In the Jim Crow South, the method of choice was Voter Literacy tests that were written in a vague manner in order for the graders of such a test to be able to discriminate against African Americans who wished to vote. However, when it turned out that uneducated white men were having trouble with the tests, the legislators instituted as system called grandfathering, in which if a voter’s grandfather had voted in any election, they were exempt from any form of voter literacy test. This was instituted because at the time, many African Americans were either freed slaves, or the children of such, meaning that it was very unlikely for any of their grandparents to have voted in any election in their lifetime, because they were very likely slaves and therefore had no right to vote.
As opposed to today’s strategy of voter elimination which takes the form of biased voter ID laws. The proponents of such laws claim that it is to stop voter fraud especially among illegal immigrants, which doesn’t only alienate people who are here illegally, but citizens and legal residents that also happen to be the races targeted by the anti-illegal movement tend to also be targeted by these programs in which give the party with the greater support by white males more power in congress.
Voting in America is difficult. There are many obstacles the potential voter has to run through in order to have their voice heard, and even, their candidate of choice may not win. They have to struggle with paperwork to get registered to vote, which also registers them for the eligible list of candidates for the jury pool, a task nobody wants anything to do with. Then after the hard paperwork and jury duty comes Election Day. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which leads to great confusion as to what day the elections are on. Even worse are the municipal elections which vary from town to town, and county to county, leaving masses of voters confused as to what day they have to go out and make their voices heard.
After all of this, imagine the group of …show more content…
eligible registered voters who are aware of what day the elections are. Now, remember that Election Day is on a Tuesday in November. This leads to a few more issues when it comes to voting, many blue collar middle class working Americans cannot make it to the polls because they cannot afford the time off from work to make their voices heard. Then, you get to the last group of voters, who have the time to go vote, however, according to the weather channel, five percent of registered voters said that they would not go out and vote if it was raining. When it comes to Chicago, one of Illinois’ biggest voting blocks, the Illinois State Weather Survey states that November averages 37.1 inches of rain, so it is very likely that it will rain on Election Day, and that five percent of voters will not show up to the polls because of it.
This begs the question, why do people choose not to vote? This paper hopes to answer that question through the use of analysis of literature and statistics. There are many reasons for people not to vote, this paper has already laid out quite a few, but above all, the reason people do not vote is because they feel as if the system is inherently rigged to make sure that they do not get their voices heard, and their opinions represented.
Analysis
One of the biggest problems in the eyes of the voters that leads to political apathy is the idea that they no longer pick politicians, politicians pick them vis-a-vis gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing electoral districts in a way that it benefits the party or interests of those who are doing the drawing. This can affect both sides of the aisle, however seems to benefit Republicans more often, as they are more likely to hold state representative seats, which is where the redistricting happens. By far this is one of the leading causes of apathy, whereas other issues can seem to be resolved by electing new representatives, this problem seems, in the eyes of the voter, to be a negative action of politicians that cannot be changed by voting because they deliberately and, once again in the eyes of the voter, maliciously, divided up who gets to vote where in order to garner the power for their parties. According to Butera, gerrymandering leads to legislators who are not responsive to the needs and wants of those he represents, as he sees no risk for not following their whims, and no reward for sticking his head out in order to better serve his
constituency.
One example of which that he brings up is the 2013 government shutdown, during which, most of the blame was placed on the Republican Party. However, despite the polls coming through that the American people blamed the Republicans, they chose to continue the shutdown in order to get their way, seeing no true electoral risk to them and their party members if they chose to continue with their actions that Americans thought were petty and merely a political ploy. (Butera, 2014) This turned out to be true as just a year after the shutdown, the Republican Party was able to both bolster its hold on the House of Representatives, and garner a majority in the Senate. This leads to the next point, due to gerrymandering, voters feel that their vote is not effective and that they are wasting their time voting. They think that the American democracy is no longer representative of the ideals of the American people, and to an extent, they are right. Theoretically, in a truly representative democracy, if one party were to receive sixty percent of the vote, and the other receive forty percent, the seats would be more or less mathematically lined up with the number of votes for each party, plus or minus a few seats. However in America in 2012, after receiving a meager fifty one percent of the popular vote, the Republican Party was able to take seventy five percent of the seats that were up for grabs. (Butera, 2014)
Now, this is an obvious problem that is caused by gerrymandering which has caused the some people to give up hope in the system as a whole and quit voting. However, another part of the problem is that when people quit voting the majority of those who continue to vote tend to be of a similar mind set, in this case conservative Republican. Those who vote Republican also tend to be those who are more likely to vote overall, especially in midterm elections, in which we see the highest rate of non-voting, especially among young people, who are more likely to be cynical of the system in place as they have not seen it any different and think that it is truly resistant to change. By and large it tends to be young people who don’t vote, partly because they feel isolated from the system and partly because the importance of voting is not something that is easily seen during high school, where you are still sheltered by your parents, and are less likely to be working a full time job and pay taxes on your earnings.
Now, no one likes feeling that they are being represented by someone who doesn’t, on a racial or ethical level, stand for them. That is one reason that African Americans as a group are both unlikely to vote, and when they do, they are likely to vote Democrat, despite holing ideals that are more in line with the Republican Party. Congress in a building filled with old white men, even more so for the Republican Party. Pew Research came out with an article declaring that the 114th congress is the most diverse in history. However, when combined together all Ethnic Minorities only make up seventeen percent of both houses of Congress. As for the different parties, minorities hold seventy four seats for Democrats, yet only eleven for Republicans. (Krogstad, 2015) This is not only because ethnic minorities are more likely to side with Democrats on policy issues, as is evidenced by African Americans tending to be more conservative, however still choosing to vote for Democrats. It is because the minorities feel ostracized and bullied by the Republicans, often either making them vote for Democrats, or not vote at all.
On top of this, Republicans tend to see the idea of a non-voting block of African Americans as a good thing as they have started in recent year to string together legislation that effectively makes it harder for those of lower economic and social standing to be able to make their voice heard. These laws are similar in intention to those of the Jim Crow South. They are instituted in order to make it harder for a certain group of people, in both cases African Americans, to be able to vote on Election Day through a number of methods. In the Jim Crow South, the method of choice was Voter Literacy tests that were written in a vague manner in order for the graders of such a test to be able to discriminate against African Americans who wished to vote. However, when it turned out that uneducated white men were having trouble with the tests, the legislators instituted as system called grandfathering, in which if a voter’s grandfather had voted in any election, they were exempt from any form of voter literacy test. This was instituted because at the time, many African Americans were either freed slaves, or the children of such, meaning that it was very unlikely for any of their grandparents to have voted in any election in their lifetime, because they were very likely slaves and therefore had no right to vote.
As opposed to today’s strategy of voter elimination which takes the form of biased voter ID laws. The proponents of such laws claim that it is to stop voter fraud especially among illegal immigrants, which doesn’t only alienate people who are here illegally, but citizens and legal residents that also happen to be the races targeted by the anti-illegal movement tend to also be targeted by these programs in which give the party with the greater support by white males more power in congress.