The Importance of Voting By Sarah Bargfrede

It’s Election Season! And we all know what that means; hundreds of unachievable campaign promises, commercials filled with political rhetoric and borderline idiotic slogans (I mean, nothing against the candidates but who did these people pay to come up with “Feel the Bern” or “I Like Mike”?), awkwardly intense family gatherings, and shields of childish insults and slander to protect candidates from having to truly answer America’s questions. With all the fanfare and political turmoil filling the elections and staining our ballots, it isn’t difficult to understand the lack of American voters. It’s been so hard to entice our people to vote that only 55% of eligible voters cast a vote in the 2016 election, a number that dwindles to only 40% in the midterm election. And unfortunately, those embarrassing numbers are on the downturn. (Be prepared, this blog post is basically that Levi's commercial in print... except without the inspirational music in the background... sorry).

While I arguably lack credibility to say so as someone who can't even vote yet and hasn’t experienced life outside of the “utopic American democracy,”  voting -to me- is just as much a privilege as it is a right to the American people. A privilege that has been taking for granted by many citizens questioning their votes actual significance on the election outcome. While the electoral college does make our individual impacts on the presidential elections less noticeable, it cannot be used as an excuse for the questionably low voting percentages in the midterms. Decided by popular vote, individual impact in House and other non-presidential elections is glaringly obvious. Over the past 20 years, more than a dozen races have been decided by a single vote or ended in a tie. In 2017, a tie- decided more or less by picking a random name out of a hat- gave the Republican party control of the house by one seat. In 2008, a Connecticut state House race was determined by one vote out of about 6,400. In 2006, A Democratic primary for an Alaska state House seat was decided by a coin toss to break a tie. Taking into account the low voting percentages, it’s easy to wonder how these controversial elections would have turned out had everyone participated (and if they not been decided by childhood games equivalent to rock, paper, scissors.)

Voting is one of America’s defining characteristics of freedom. It was a right valiantly fought for throughout our history. Through movements, protests, and the like, voting is no longer limited to the white landowning men and to that, I can only say Thank God. But America still has a long way to go to fully utilize every strength and benefit that comes from this power- starting with us. As for how to convince people to vote, I’ve considered kidnapping and bribery as the best options, however, if your looking for something less… illegal… there are numerous proposed solutions to this problem. For instance, it has been argued that making voting booths more convenient and accessible would greatly enhance voting. This could be done by increasing the number of available booths or even making an official voting app to allow balloting to occur at home. Eliminating the need to register for voting, something that has already been done in Germany, Sweden, etc. is also a feasible solution. Whatever it is, it is recognizably critical that we bring awareness to the importance of voting in order to ensure that Americans cherish this hard-earned privilege.

Visit these sites for more Info:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-designers-increase-voter-turnout-2016-10#vote-on-videos-8
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663709392/why-every-vote-matters-the-elections-decided-by-a-single-vote-or-a-little-more