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Voting in America
Your Most Basic Right as an American is Under Attack. Your Most Trusted Duty as a Citizen Hangs in the Balance. Are You Paying Attention?
Tim Brown
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…
- Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
Right now a citizen soldier is risking his life in a far-off land to defend his most treasured belief, the principle of democracy. It doesn't matter if his belief is caught in a maelstrom of global gamesmanship. Nor does it matter if the real motivations of his leaders are hidden behind empty slogans. It doesn't matter if his view of war has changed from his experience. What matters is that he went to war in the belief that he was carrying out an honorable duty - to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people. He is no summer solder, no sunshine patriot. He learned from his history books about his duty as a citizen of this great land, he was weaned on it at his school and in his community, he feels it in his gut and he values it so much that he has "put it all on the line" for it. Democracy is his guiding principle.
Why You Should Vote
How much do you value democracy? What's it really worth to you? Are you willing to fight for it? Are you willing to put it all on the line? The full participation of an informed electorate is the bulwark of a vibrant democracy. In fact, it's the definition of it. If you really value the democratic principle and you want to see it spread all over the world then don't you first have a duty to spread it right here in America?
The privilege of being an American comes with an obligation, a duty to your country to take part in the stewardship of our nation. Your duty to your fellow citizens is to pay close attention to those issues in which all of us have a stake and to vote accordingly. As our friends at Rockridge Nation put it, voting is helping your community by fulfilling your civic responsibility.
In 1976 Samuel Huntington, a political scientist at Harvard and long-time consultant to the White House, was alarmed at what he called "The Democratic Distemper" - a dramatic upsurge by the people of America to have a say in their government. This, he argued, was a threat to government authority and it had to be quelled. Over the next 30 years the Owners of America spent $30 billion to fund think tanks, media outlets and politicians to convince the rest of us that things are just fine the way they are.
Learning about the issues and casting your vote is the only way to overcome the huge flow of money that a relatively small group of wealthy people use to influence elections in their favor. You see, the Ruling Class prefers a small turnout of loyalists; everybody else can stay home, thank you. It's cheaper for them that way and helps them control all the variables. You are the only variable they can't control and it scares them witless. Because they don't trust you to give them everything they want. That's why it's important for you to vote. So you get what you want.
The last presidential election saw the highest voter turnout in a couple of decades. Nearly 58% of eligible voters showed up at polling places and did their patriotic duty to cast a vote on who would represent them at all levels of government. Sounds like a good number until you realize that 42% didn't bother to cast their ballots. We tout our brand of participative democracy as a model for the world and nearly half our people don't vote. That's irony for you.
How important is your vote? 537 - That's the number of votes that handed George W. Bush Florida in 2000 along with the Presidency. Many other states were within two or three percentage points. If just a fraction of non-voters had gone to the polls America could have a followed a different path these last seven years.
In larger terms it's even more important. In 2004 George Bush got 62,040,606 votes (51%); John Kerry got 59,028,109 (48%). Over 121 million citizens voted. Yet 90 million eligible citizens didn't cast their vote in 2004. That means more people didn't bother to vote than cast a vote for either candidate. That's a whole lot of people who could form the basis for real change in our government. The President got himself re-elected with just 29% of eligible voters supporting him. That's hardly a mandate for his policies, despite the hullabaloo you heard from the national press.
Why Primaries Are Important
Okay, so you actually got out and voted during the general election. But when you got inside the voting booth you couldn't tell a lick of difference between the candidates on kitchen table issues - the ones you wrestle with late into the night over a pot of coffee. Sure, one candidate is for stem cell research, a woman's right to choose and same sex unions and the other one is not - all those hot-button issues that get a knee-jerk reaction out of you - but neither candidate is talking about how they are going to relieve the very real economic worries that you and most Americans face on a daily basis. Neither candidate is proposing universal healthcare, progressive taxation, real investment in public education or a huge reduction in military expenditures to pay for it all. Your choice was already watered down by big money partisans to two flavors of vanilla served to you by silver spoon candidates.
PIPA, the Program on International Policy Attitudes, spends its time conducting in-depth public opinion studies. They don't just ask if people are for or against something, they ask why and get very specific about it so that they can understand what people really feel about an issue. In 2005 PIPA conducted a comprehensive study on American attitudes about domestic spending and budget issues. Both Republicans and Democrats had surprisingly similar opinions on how our tax dollars should be spent - surprising, that is, if you believe mainstream media's depiction of a polarized America. Across the board citizens reported that they would pour money into public education, job training and employment programs. They would increase benefits for veterans and dramatically increase spending to develop renewable energy. All of this would be paid for by deep cuts in defense spending - that famous "Peace Dividend" we were supposed to get after the fall of the Soviet Union; the one that was conveniently forgotten by politicians in the wake of 9/11.
So, if this is how we the People want our tax dollars to be spent then how come our elected officials do no better than pay lip service to our demands? Because they can. Politicians comfortably ensconced in our current pay-to-play system of government know that all it takes to win is a fat campaign war chest; the one with the best 30-second spots wins. And by the time candidates make it to the general election they've gotten a very clear picture of how the game is played. They've been vetted by K Street lobbyists and scrubbed by political consultants and sold to us like snack food.
The primaries are where the real choices exist. They are where you can find candidates actually proposing solutions to the things that are most important to the majority of Americans - before it all gets watered down into sound bites. In the primary you can vote your conscience instead of holding your nose and voting for the least bad choice that media pundits have already decided is electable and within the "mainstream." If enough of us play our part in the primaries we might just get candidates in the general election talking about real issues and offering real solutions.
How to Reclaim Our Democracy
You've seen the bumper sticker: "If you don't vote, then don't complain about the government." But on Election Day 2004 millions of voters had a lot to complain about: they waited in line for hours to cast ballots, many of the requested provisional ballots never arrived, others were tossed in the trash and the final tallies from voting machines showed gross inaccuracies while officials played partisan politics with the voting rules. Sadly the last Presidential election exposed deep flaws in a process that should be guaranteed to run smoothly. The 2006 Mid-Term election did little to improve upon those flaws.
Bumper sticker philosophy aside, if a free and fair election is not possible then everything else we hold dear about this nation is in danger. But, how do we get there from here? I have some suggestions:
I. Provide Federal Money and National Standards to Fix a National Problem
I know what you're thinking - some folks will be screaming about states rights. But think of it this way: The guy who dumps his garbage in the river you drink from and then tells you to mind your own business is making a false claim of privacy. It is your business; it's everyone's business who shares the river. Since we all drink from the river of democracy any local error or manipulation can poison the water for everyone.
Right now each state decides how elections are going to be handled and many states allow each district or municipality to make their own rules. The result is a hodge-podge of regulations that is fertile ground for partisan meddling. A prime example is in Ohio where the 2004 Presidential Election saw 153,237 provisional ballots simply thrown away. And it's not just a peculiarity of the Buckeye State that citizens have their votes discarded. The U.S. Census Bureau, in a report on voter turn-out seven months after the election, announced an alarming fact - in a footnote:
The Current Population Survey estimate of overall turnout (125.7 million) differs from the "official" turnout, as reported by the Clerk of the House (122.3 million).
That means there is a 3.4 million vote discrepancy. That's about half a million more votes than the margin of victory in the "official" count. However those missing votes would have been counted, the sheer number of uncounted ballots casts a large shadow on the validity of the second presidential election in a row.
While traditionally voting issues have been handled by the individual states there have been times when their actions were so egregious that Congress had to step in to bring them back in line. In fairness to each state and every citizen, Congress should consider an amendment to the Constitution that provides guidance for conducting this most important patriotic duty so that everyone is playing by the same rule book. The recent actions of our legislators are more concerned with "restoring faith" in our system than in creating a system that works.
As for funding, it seems fair to me that if our leaders can cough up nearly a trillion dollars for democracy in Iraq, they can surely squeeze out a few million for some home-grown democracy.
II. Fix the Voter Registration Process
You can't vote if you're not registered, right? And if the registration process does not work smoothly then you're only inviting trouble on Election Day. In the run-up to the 2004 election local registrars were swamped by requests from 20 million new voters. As a result, they had difficulty updating lists, voters had difficulty confirming their registrations, and previously registered voters arrived at the polls to find they no longer appeared on the rolls. This is why we need national guidelines that guarantee every eligible citizen can register. What to do?
First, establish a process that guarantees each citizen the ability to register to vote by multiple means - Motor/Voter, Draft Registration, websites, mailers, through public services, regular registration drives and on-the-spot registration for those who can prove they are eligible to vote. Our government should be proactive in getting people properly registered and disseminating that information to the local boards of elections. That way, everyone knows how to register and where they need to go to vote on Election Day. Our goal should be 100% registration of all eligible voters. I'd settle for somewhere in the nineties.
Second, the purging of voter lists should be the normal process of cleaning up the data - but it should happen immediately after an election to allow plenty of time to do a proper assessment before removing someone from the voter role. And no state official should be allowed to purge voter roles using uncorroborated lists from a private firm - where there is no accountability. If that's not disenfranchisement I don't know what is. And it shouldn't be allowed to happen. This is America, not some tin-pot dictatorship.
III. Be Ready for Election Day
Once we've got a registration system that works we need to turn our attention to preparing for the Big Day. The polls must be open on time, with sufficient voting machines, adequately staffed with well-trained poll workers and a clear chain of command to address voting irregularities and resolve disputes. Judging from the overwhelming number of complaints by voters, counting on local partisans and part-time volunteers seems a haphazard guarantee of democracy. That is why national standards and funding are crucial. Train people, pay them for their time, and put them at the polls the first weekend in November.
IV. Build the Right Machines
But none of these safeguards are sufficient if the voting machines are suspect. You'd think that after the Florida debacle there would be no more hanging chads. Tell that to a few million Ohioans who spent the last Presidential Election Day poking holes in ballots. Of the more than 95,000 ballots in Ohio where the vote for President was not counted, more than 70,000 were from punch-card precincts.
Despite this second fiasco the same nonsense occurred again in the 2006 Mid-Term elections. In fact, all across the country millions of citizens used punch-card ballots to cast their vote - with hundreds of thousands of voters calling their local election boards afterwards with complaints or concerns that their vote wasn't correctly counted. When so many people are complaining, it moves beyond the sore loser category to an action item on the official agenda. So, if chads are out next season what can we offer as a replacement?
A user-friendly touch screen is a great start - who hasn't used an ATM? - but it shouldn't end there. Millions of voters from Florida to California used these machines for the first time during the last Presidential Election. The problem with them became apparent in Franklin County, Ohio when it was discovered that George Bush received 4,258 votes in a precinct that had only 638 votes to cast. After officials picked their jaws off the floor they adjusted the tally, but it begs the question: Where else did the electronic voting machines fail to accurately cast votes?
There is an easy way to guarantee accuracy, one that is already available to the counties that purchased those new-fangled machines. It's called a printer. For less than a hundred dollars every machine can be equipped with one so that when you cast your ballot you receive a printed receipt of your vote just like you get a receipt of your groceries when you go to the supermarket.
Another receipt would be printed for election officials. At the close of the polls they could release the electronic instant results after a preliminary check to verify that they match the results on the receipts. These receipts are the "official results" and would take precedence over the electronic count. Would it take a little longer? Perhaps. But your vote is the most sacred right that you have as an American. Getting it right should take precedence over calls for expediency.
V. Trust but Verify
We already know that the machines that will dominate the 2008 elections will be provided by private manufacturers who refuse to turn over the software to government regulators for inspection. They claim it's because their software is proprietary - a big trade secret. But this is a lie.
I used to make a living programming computers so I know for a fact that there is nothing terribly special or innovative about a counting program. In fact, it's so simple that it is one of the first things they teach you to do - (IF "A", THEN ADD 1 TO A-COUNT…). A junior programmer could write the code. Certainly, a ballot with hundreds of candidates is a bit more complicated, but the basic principle is the same. It's not rocket science, it is simple addition.
But, more importantly, if we are going to entrust private companies to count our votes they have a civic duty to make their calculations completely transparent to all of us. Secret counting is something that went on in the Soviet Union, comrade. In America we want them counted fair and square.
VI. Time for a National Holiday
Why don't people vote? The main reason given is that they don't have enough time in their busy work day to squeeze in an act of patriotism. The obvious solution then would be to make Election Day a national holiday.
So, why isn't Election Day already a national holiday? Because all those empty chairs at work mean a lost day of productivity. Is your employer going to give you the day off with pay? Not likely, so you'll have to sacrifice a vacation day or go without pay or try to squeeze in a visit to the polling place between work and getting your kid to the soccer match.
What to do? Let's make everybody happy. First, we declare that Election Day is an optional holiday. The only reason that it falls on a Tuesday is because in 1845 James Polk was trying to accommodate all those farmers who went to market on Mondays. There aren't as many farmers around these days, so why don't we change it to Monday - then everybody who votes can have a long weekend. Here's how it would work:
Everyone who casts a vote gets a receipt of that vote, including who they cast their votes for. This receipt has a perforated tear-off at the bottom that they turn in to their employer to prove that they voted. They get paid for their day off. The employer turns those receipts in to the government and receives a tax credit for each one, off-setting their economic loss.
Here's the payoff: Most people lose their excuse for not voting and voter turnout skyrockets to a level never before witnessed in the country that started democracy in the modern world. Employers get a tax break for acting patriotically. And everybody who votes gets the day off. This is a win for everybody - for the voters, who get a paid vacation day; for the businesses who get a generous tax break; and for the nation, as a real majority of Americans take part in our the great democratic experiment.
These are a few common sense things we can do to guarantee that our vote count reflects the will of the citizens of this great country. Before we lecture other countries about the sacredness of democracy we really should make sure it works like it's supposed to here at home. Then we could all proudly display a new bumper sticker: "Voting is a Patriotic Act."
See Part II: My Conversation with a Fundraiser
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Voting in America: A Brief History
The issue of voting rights in the United States has been contentious over the country's history. There have been several similar, but somewhat separate movements to extend voting rights to groups of people who had been disenfranchised through a variety of legal and extra-legal means. At least five of the fifteen post-Civil War amendments were ratified specifically to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens, not including the seventeenth amendment which provided for the direct election of United States Senators.
1788: The founding fathers of the United States establish the Electoral College. The American people do not directly elect the President. Instead, the Electoral College elects the President.
The Electoral College votes are divided among the states. Each state gets two votes for its two Senators and a vote for each of its Representatives in Congress. The number of congressional representatives varies from state to state depending on the state's population. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, they win that state's Electoral College vote.
1789: The U.S. elects George Washington as its first President.
1820-1830: As states join the union they create their own state constitutions outlining who is allowed to vote. Eligible voters are mostly white males who own property. A small number of free black men are allowed to vote but no women either white or black.
1840: Women begin to organize to petition for suffrage, or the right to vote.
1848: Wisconsin enters the union and has the most liberal voting laws. They allow people living here from other countries the right to vote if they had lived in Wisconsin for one year and plan to become citizens of the United States. But even in Wisconsin, women do not have the right to vote.
1850: Groups like the "No-Nothings" create laws that state that those who wish to vote must pass a literacy test. Since many blacks and immigrants cannot read or write they are denied the right to vote. Illiterate whites are grandfathered into the system.
1866: Congress passes the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It states that men age 21 and over who are residents of the United States have the right to vote. Women still do not have the right to vote.
1869: Congress passes the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment grants all men the right to vote regardless of race, color, or if they were formally slaves. The Amendment does not give women the right to vote.
1870: Utah territory gives women the right to vote.
1877: Samuel Tilden wins the popular vote in the 1876 presidential election, but the Electoral Commission gives disputed Electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes
1878: An act to amend the Constitution and give women the right to vote is introduced into Congress but does not pass.
1890: Many states begin to use secret ballots so that voters cannot be bullied into voting for candidates they do not support.
1896: Idaho grants women the right to vote.
1911: California grants women the right to vote.
1920: Congress passes the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote.
1964: Congress passes the 24th Amendment to the Constitution outlawing poll taxes. Poll taxes, or tax fees for voting, have been used to discourage poor people from voting.
1965: The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The act enforces the 15th Amendment by explicitly stating that obstacles, such as literacy tests or complicated ballot instructions, are against federal law.
1971: Congress passes the 26th Amendment to the Constitution lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. The law is meant to resolve the disparity that 18-year-old men are old enough to be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, yet did not have the right to vote.
1975: Congress expands the Voting Rights Act to protect the voting rights of those people who do not speak or read English.
2000: For the first time in United States history, in a close and controversial election, the President of the United States is chosen based on a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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