I know that Election Day seems like just a distant glimmer on the horizon of your mind, but campus groups and government agencies are mobilizing to make the grand ballet that is Election Day happen. At every turn students are being encouraged to register to vote or to use their time and idealism to further the efforts of the candidates and their parties.
The rallying cry surrounding this and most presidential elections seems to revolve around telling people to get out there and vote. This is a slightly mistaken point of view. I have very little interest in telling people to vote. Whether or not you feel that you truly have a voice in the presidential election, if you can’t see what an awesome responsibility and privilege voting is, then I am uncomfortable with you voting.
On-campus efforts such as the group Pack the Polls have the admirable goal of getting people registered to vote and helping them vote. According to Student Body President Jay Dawkins, the group has applied for a grant which would allow them to provide convenient bus service which would take students directly to the nearest polls and back to allow them to fit voting into their busy Tuesday.
This is a more valuable method of improving voter turnout than mere persuasion. I think the collective efforts of the ravenous politically minded masses should be focused on making voting easier for those who have an interest in voting instead of convincing people who aren’t interested to care — or even worse to just vote anyway without any attempt at education.
Specifically, I think that we should work to move voting from the traditional first Tuesday in November to a more convenient weekend day, Saturday. According to the U.S. Census report on voter turnout from the presidential election in November 2004, the top reason for not voting was that people were too busy or had conflicting work or school schedules. And that accounted for 20 percent of registered voters who did not vote.
We all hear so much about how low the voter turnout is in America, especially when compared to the rest of the world. It seems like such a logical step to look at and correct the number one reason that people who cared enough to register didn’t make it out to vote, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps you are thinking that possibly there is a very good reason that we vote on Tuesday. Allow me to dispel that thought.
Originally, Congress chose Tuesday as the best day for voting in 1845. It was chosen so that people could travel to the county seat one day, vote the next, and then travel home without having to travel on the Sabbath. As convenient as that was for farmers back in the day, I know it will be a huge hassle for me and many of you to find time to make it to the polls without having to miss class or work.
I know it’s too late for this year’s election, but with four more years before the next presidential election, there may be hope that a concerted effort might supplant mindless adherence to tradition. Maybe this will be the last year that we have to rearrange our lives to be able to make our voices heard.
Rock the vote and tell Kate what you think at [email protected].