We are the problem. The worst part is that it’s not what we’re doing, but what we aren’t doing. This may seem a little blunt, but hear me out.
Of America’s registered voters, only approximately 36% actually voted in Tuesday’s midterm election. This leaves nearly 76% of potential voters choosing to not be represented in government.
Our fellow citizens have plenty of excuses for this, too, and some are more legitimate than others. The most common that I have heard include that they cannot physically get to the polls within opening hours, they are not informed enough to make a sound decision, or they simply do not believe that their voice counts for anything.
I have spent the past few months interning on a grassroots-based campaign, and if there is anything that I have learned, it’s that there is a solution to all of the aforementioned excuses used by non-voters.
Firstly, there are so many who are not aware of their voting options. In many states, voting is made incredibly easy. 33 states allow early voting, 27 states allow no-excuse absentee ballots (voting by mail), and 3 states send ballots to the mailbox of every registered voter. There are only 14 states that do not offer early voting or no-excuse absentee ballots, but even then an absentee ballot is provided to those who request it and have a basis for it. Let’s get real for a moment — no one really is prevented from voting unless someone from one of the 14 states without additional options happens to fall horribly ill on election day.
The campaign that I was involved with was especially big on pushing vote-by-mail. All you really have to do in states allowing no-excuse absentee ballots is to apply for your ballot online or print out and mail in an application, and then you can vote without even leaving your property. This also allows students away at college to vote from their dorms.
Then we have the issue of people refusing to vote because they are not politically informed. I’ll start off by giving them mad props for not blindly voting along party lines or voting based on uber-biased ads on television and YouTube, but getting informed isn’t all that difficult. Spend even an hour looking up what’s on your ballot and then information about your candidates and your problem is solved. Obviously the more time spent the better, but we do what we can. It’s true that there are those without internet, but as long as they can find anyone with a computer in the general vicinity or a library with computers then all is well.
When going door-to-door and getting my canvass on, it was beyond disheartening to hear so many potential voters tell me that they were not planning on voting this year because they did not believe that their vote means anything or because they “did not like politics”. There was many a time when I was able to convince them otherwise (and had them fill out a vote-by-mail application), and then there were the people who simply could not and would not be convinced. Break my heart some more, why don’t you.
My point here is that it would not be all that difficult to increase voter turnout drastically if we all did our best to spread the word about the importance of being an active participant in American democracy. Voters must realize that each and every informed vote cast brings us one step closer to holding our politicians accountable for their actions and seeing through the bullshit spewed by so many; this is how we can bring the change and reform that we need so dearly.
Find out where to vote and what your state’s options are: http://www.canivote.org/
We Are Our Change 