And
an awful lot of citizens who can vote just don't bother to. A lot of
these non-voters are young. A lot of them say, “What does it
matter? It's just one vote!” Some of them seem to think that voting
is bowing down to the people in power. Not voting, they think, is
thumbing your nose at the system. A rebellious gesture.
But
it's not a gesture at all. The people in power love it when people
don't bother to hold them accountable! As a recent poster said, “Not
voting isn't revolution—it's surrender.”
In
other words, if more and more people don't vote, they surrender their
power to make choices to the fewer people who do vote.
In
the U.S., people have to register to vote before they are allowed to
vote on election day. Most states have regulations that voters must
register 15 or 30 days (or so) before the election, but eight states
have a way to register on election day, and then vote, and two states
have a way to register ahead of time but then also vote on that day.
Nowadays many people vote through “absentee” ballots, rather than
by going to the polls, so many, many people vote before election day.
Take
advantage of today's “holiday” to encourage everyone you know who
can vote (everyone old enough, who is a citizen) to register and to
vote. Here are some websites to help people do so:
Did
you know...
In
32 nations, citizens are required to vote. (Apparently, not ALL of
these nations enforce this compulsory voting law.) Australians and
Belgians, for example, get fined if they don't vote. What do you
think? Good or bad idea?
Do
you think the voting age should be lower? Check
out this earlier post.
Also on this date:
No comments:
Post a Comment