Section 1: Introduction
Why do we need to talk about voting?
Voting has a weird balance of being something so important once every four years, but somewhat forgotten the rest of the time. When it is something we care about, the talk about voting gets wrapped into a larger discussion about the candidates running. I don’t think there is much of actual focus on the act of voting, and I think that may be an issue. For a country that holds voting as critical to our democratic process, I feel like I always hear voting is our civic duty; we are pretty bad at voting.
This is surprising when we consider how generations before us fought for the right to vote. At the beginning of our countries history, only white, male, property owners, or 6% of the population, were afforded the right to vote. Soon that right was extended to all white men, regardless of property ownership. In 1870, with the abolition of slavery and the implementation of the 15th amendment, all men, regardless of race gained the right to vote. African Americans struggled for the next 90 years to exercise this right, stifled by literacy tests and poll taxes. Women gained the right, after a long suffrage movement, in 1920. And finally, in in1971 with the 26th amendment, citizens between the ages of 18 to 21 received the right to vote after fighting for it in response to the Vietnam War draft. All these groups that earned the right to vote over time had to fight for it. Some even died for it. Yet it does not seem like some present-day Americans feel voting is as important as previous generations.
As this graphic emphasizes, we aren't great at voting. Our turnout rates lag behind compared to other western democracies. At about sixty percent turnout, we sit far behind even countries like Mexico (66%) and the Czech Republic (60%). Nothing against those countries, I just wouldn’t expect their elections to be more democratic than ours in the sense more of the population is getting their voice heard at the ballot box. Our low voter turnout, especially compared other countries confused me, and I wanted to better understand why that was the case.
Participatory democracy does not work if we don't participate. Yet right now a large part of our electorate treats voting like a spectator sport. This is especially interesting when we consider the seemingly overwhelming discontent with the action of our government. This anger with our government is captured by our Congress sitting at an approval rating under 20 percent. If we are so upset with the job our representatives are doing on our behalf, why don't we vote in new representatives? This takes us to my main question.
So why don't people vote? Do most people just not care that much about elections or think their vote does not matter? Before we delve into trying to answer questions about voter psychology, first it is important we answer a simpler question; is it easy to vote in America?
This is what I want to explore.
In my life, I have had only good experiences the two times I have voted. I have been registered in California and then Michigan and voted in both states. I registered online both times using my state ID, and it only took me a matter of minutes. When I voted in California in the primary in 2016, it was very convenient as I was in and out of the polling place in 10 minutes proudly rocking my "I Voted" sticker. When I voted in the 2016 general election in Michigan, it was more difficult, as I had to wait in a lengthy line, but was still able to vote after an hour wait. It was simple for me to register and pretty easy to vote, so I assumed this is what most peoples voting experience must have been like.
This speaks to why I don’t think we question if it is easy to vote in our country. I think most people think as I do about voting, that their experience is likely representative of the average experience. Registering and voting is not that hard, and anyone should be able to do it. You just need an ID most places, and how many adults don’t have a driver’s license?
Well, according to surveys done by the Brennan Center for Justice...
As the survey found, 11 percent or over 20 million voting-age Americans don’t have government-issued IDs. This number is much higher than I would have guessed, but it speaks to how requiring government-issued photo ID can suppress potential voters. This made me wonder how many Americans are not able to vote because they don’t have the proper ID or any ID at all? I know my experience voting was easy but is that representative of what most Americans go through?
From what I have found in my research, it does seem like my most Americans vote with relative ease, but not all Americans find it that easy. This is the problem I see. Many Americans struggle to exercise their supposed duty as citizens, and I don’t think there is enough awareness about this. These votes matter, they matter so much, and I hope proving that will encourage more support to getting as many Americans to vote as possible. Right now, I don’t think our elections are truly representing the will of the collective people, just the ones who vote, and that is something we need to change.