VOTER IDENTIFICATION ISN’T A NOVEL IDEA!

VOTER IDENTIFICATION ISN’T A NOVEL IDEA!

(Department of Politics, New York University)

(Steven J. Brams, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Peter C. Fishburn)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, James E. Causey, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Only in America, it seems as if everything either started or stopped right here, in the continental United States, and is that condescending or what? We’re still quibbling over whether a citizen needs to have identification in order to vote. We are (collectively) still trying to keep some folks from the voting booths through all sorts of vile voter rights shenanigans.

Of the developed countries (those nations who have went through an industrial revolution period and are   deemed…..civilized), the U.S. of A. is far down the list of turnouts…..in fact the U.S. ranks at the lowest end of citizens who vote.

To me this revelation was shocking.  The turnout count here is a scant 48% while 51% of Pakistan’s citizens figure that voting is important. Malta, Chile, Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg count at 90% or above in voter participation. To hear our political leaders talk, you’d think we had a huge participation of voters…..BUT WE DON’T!

Of course there are variables from country to country, there’s discrimination based on sex, race, age, citizenship, and/or religion. After increasing for several decades, there seems to be a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s. In general, a low voter turnout is due to disenchantment, indifference, or contentment.

I can only speak from my observations, but I’d bet the baby’s milk money that the reason for low voter turnout in the United States DOES not come from voter contentment. Disenfranchised, a feeling of hopelessness, or an almost complete negative attitude, just a few of the reasons why people giver very little effort to get out and vote.

Then there’s what I’d call “the big seven,” almost stock reasons why voters, eligible citizens, won’t get out a do their talking on the issues and candidates with their ballot. The seven listed reasons below pretty much sum up why people here in America just don’t care;

1. Vote won’t count.

2. Too busy.

3. Registration requirements.

4. Apathy. 

5. Lines to damn long.

6. Don’t like candidates.

7. Can’t get out to the polls.

I suppose that for some…..any one of the afore mentioned 7 procrastinating reasons can be applied to voters here in the United States. But let’s face the facts of our political process here in the states, the less voter participation…..the better, politicians don’t have to derail, and guide voters into their camp or train of thought.

There are even scientific studies that disseminate voter turnout, the theory of a single vote, and its impact, and how block voting can affect a political race. In the presidential race here in the United States, the impact of the Electoral College also has its pros and cons, and the affects that that apparatus has in the final analysis of who becomes President. It can actually boil down to a popularity contest…..like a high school prom king and queen.  How our system of government can be manipulated is truly unbelievable.

REASONS FOR VOTER TURNOUT AND THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTOR

There are as many misconceptions about voter turnout here in the United States as Carter used to have little liver pills (and that was alot of pills). As I mentioned, a single vote can very seldom make a difference in a political race, almost at any level, local, regional, state, or federal.

The experts have created a formula to determine whether someone will vote, based on the assumption that people act completely rationally. I find that few people act rationally in the big elections where the meaning of a candidate’s platform can completely become diluted by his own statements, reactions, and what might be said or eluded to by his own staff, and handlers.

That formula for determining whether someone will vote is, (PB+D>C.) P is the probability that an individual’s vote will affect the election; B is the perceived benefit that a voter would get if his candidate or political party is elected. D originally stood for democracy or civic duty, but today represents any social or personal gratification an individual gets from voting, and C, the time, effort, and the financial cost involved in voting.

One reason not to consider whenever voter turnout here in the United States approaches 60% is the fact that the citizens like or endorse the present system of government. In many elections on the state and federal levels, a voter is simply voicing his anger with the system that is in use. Statistics can be a really strange animal, I have used my vote to protest, or to make a statement, to date it hasn’t worked, but I did feel better, kind of cathartic.

Simply stated (and I’m simple), the socioeconomic status is the measure of people’s work experience and of an individual’s or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation. In simple terms, families where the heads of the household vote, siblings are more likely to follow in the established tradition of talking about and voting on issues of the day.

People in the lower stratus of American’s population, where wages, health, job security, and education are less likely components of a lifestyle will habitually be less educated about the issues of the day, are more likely to be frustrated, and will be unwilling to participate in a system that they view as broken. It is this group of Americans that are not only neglected, and overlooked as allies of a candidate’s base, they are continually pushed asunder because of their status in the community, the region, the state, and at the federal level.

JIM CROW IS ALIVE AND WELL

Here in the United States, if even one state has a rule or regulation that’ll keep somebody from enjoying his perceived inalienable rights, or one citizen is barred from his pursuit of his minimal rights as an American citizen…..that restriction must be eradicated, and those people prosecuted to the fullest extent of the laws of the land. Individual states do not have the sovereign right to deny these basic rights.

There are several southern states that require their citizens to have prescribed identification forms, recent requirements, a mailing address (no post office boxes), new requirements for early or absentee ballot voting.

I personally don’t have a problem with some sort of identification card that’ll let a voting district who you, and where you live. This has always been a stumbling block and a bug-a-boo for advocates to get the vote out, and is a ploy to keep minorities out of elections…..on any level.

Let’s just say that everybody needs a personal identification)and be done with the issue, if you don’t have an I.D. you can’t vote…..there, that issue is done. What we (as a nation), need to do is get most of the citizens educated on the issues…..not just one opinion, rather both sides of the coin. We need more diversification, it’s this trait that has made us strong, and almost invincible in the world market. People, if given the facts usually make the right decisions. The smoke mirrors, and the heavy load of bull-roar that is laid down needs to cease and desist, we’ll be a better country for it.

HAVE A NICE DAY!