We have reached number 21. Thanks to all that read our blog and write to us. Your ideas are appreciated. Someone asked me, why vote?, why even bother/. I found an interesting article that I want to share with all of you about voter registration;
Should You Register to Vote?
By Ann DeLaney
Many of us — more than 50 million citizens in this country — are eligible to vote, but do not bother to register. Every citizen of the U. S. over the age of 18 is eligible to register and vote.
In all but four states, you must register before Election Day in order to vote. Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin allow their citizens to register on Election Day. North Dakota is the most voter-friendly of all — it doesn’t require you to register at all!
Every other state requires registration in advance of Election Day. Most states close the registration period 30 days before they hold the election. You must be registered in order to vote for any elective office in the U. S., from president to township advisory board. You only have to register once as long as you live at the same address and vote now and again.
Upsides and downsides of registering
Maybe you’re not registered because you’ve convinced yourself that you should avoid politics. However, avoiding politics is not possible. Political decisions will be made for you even if you elect not to participate. You still have to pay taxes even if you don’t vote. Elected officials make decisions about which streets get paved, which sidewalks get repaired, and which schools close without regard to your opinions, if you don’t vote. There is no hole deep enough for you to bury your head in to avoid politics completely. You can’t run, and you can’t hide — so you may as well participate.
Make a difference
If you do participate, you can make the system better. It may never be perfect, but improvement is possible. You have the power to make your elected officials respond to you. Your voice will be loud enough to be heard by everyone.
Voting is a valuable right that you, as an American, have. Many Americans take that right for granted . . . even the politicians. In the 1994 elections, a wave of voter reaction — a “throw ’em all out” after years of inaction and deadlock by Congress — shook up both major political parties, changed the dominant party in Congress, and made the politicians brutally aware of the issues about which voters had been concerned for years, and which the politicians had bypassed. That reaction reminded every politician not to take the voters for granted. The politicians heard the discontentment among voters, and they had to respond.
Become important
In truth, there are so many compelling reasons to vote in our country, it’s a wonder the voting turnout here doesn’t come close to approaching that of the countries that demand it.
When you vote and participate, elected officials have to consider what you think. They may not always do what you want, but they have to listen to your opinions. When you vote, you become someone important.
Cynics are probably saying, “Yeah, but not as important as PACs and special interest groups with money.” Keep in mind, though, that a district (be it a small town or the entire country) has only so many voters. Although money is in potentially limitless supply for a candidate (it can be raised from many sources), it’s illegal to buy votes, and you can’t give someone else your proxy to vote for you; so the number of votes cast in any election is finite. You and only you can cast your vote. Your vote has the same weight as the vote of every other citizen. Rich or poor, young or old, male or female, black or white, each vote is equally important.
Political power
Each American has the same number of votes. You may not have an equal share of the world’s financial resources, but the secret ballot gives us all an equal amount of voting power. Each registered voter has one and only one vote to cast — regardless of what you hear to the contrary about certain big-city or downstate rural districts, where the concept of “vote early and vote often” is allegedly in force, or where that age-old question — “Is there voting after death?” — is supposedly answered in the affirmative.
A person who has contributed $1 million to a candidate counts for no more than the vote of the person who has given nothing to a campaign. After all, winning elections is all about getting a majority of the votes cast. Secret ballots like the one in the U.S., do not permit unequal weight to be attached to a certain person’s vote. Votes are one-size-fits-all. Politicians need the votes of the “little people,” and there are more “little people” than there are rich and powerful ones.
Since John F. Kennedy was elected, the percentage of eligible voters participating in presidential elections has declined in almost every election. That is true in local elections as well.
When we all vote, we are a powerful force that can move mountains, or at least politicians. When we don’t, the small number of special interest voters have more clout because they are a bigger percentage of a smaller pie.
Lets just register and VOTE!!
See you next week!
