TL;DR AP Gov’t Chapter 8

The following deals with political science mumbojumbo.

DISCLAIMER: This does NOT serve as a replacement for reading Chapter 8.

PART 1

Among our many freedoms is the choice to participate in politics. Unlike in Australia, where voting is mandatory and punishable by law, we can choose to sleep in on election day if we please.

"Election day... wha...?"

If you took a look at any of the recent graphs for voting-age population compared to how many people vote, it’s a scary sight. Even people who register to vote only do so about 3/5 of the time. But overall, people who register, vote. To make registering easier, and in memory of Dr. Seuss, Congress passed the Motor Voter Act in 1993, which enabled those who held vehicle registrations to easily register through the mail. But maybe, just maybe, people are apathetic towards voting because they like things that way they are.

Though voting only originally included white, property-owning males, it has expanded for nearly everyone. The 15th Amendment in 1870 allowed black men the right to vote, but the loopholes of literacy tests and poll taxes were quickly employed. Both methods of voter suppression affects whites, so the southern used the grandfather clause and the white primary to get around them. If you had a relative vote before 1867, the earliest year for black voting, then you could vote. In addition, only whites could vote in pre-federal election primaries.

Blacks would finally get full rights with the Voting Rights Act in 1964. Federal examiners were sent to the states to ensure voter registration. Until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, women were also not allowed to vote. A few states, like Wyoming in 1869, had allowed women to vote, but finally every state granted them the right. Two more Amendments, the 23rd and the 26th, gave D.C. residents the right to vote in 1961 and eighteen-year-olds in 1971, respectively.

Submitting a blank ballot is the best way to tell the system 'Shove it!'

Even though the electorate has more than doubled in the past century alone, voter turn-out pretty much sucks. One reason why is the lack of political party involvement. If you can believe it, the parties used to be involved in getting people registered to vote and active in politics. Now, it just seems like they want you money. Parties also used to print their own ballots, which led to huge amounts of voter fraud. To end this, the Australian ballot, a uniform, federal-issued ballot with wallabies and kangaroos on the back, was formed in 1890.

After the hassle of the 2000 election, Congress passed reforms to ensure that more people voted on election day. If they were suspected of being fraudulent, their ballot would be discarded during a recount. The reforms also updated the systems, though many states still rely on paper balloting.

As mentioned earlier, voter participation seems to be going down. But thankfully, this is not the case. We must keep in mind that the voter-age population and voter-eligible population are two different things. Felons, convicts, and aliens (not people from Mars; instead people without US citizenship) cannot vote. With this new perspective, we see that voter participation is actually going up!

PART 2

Though they don't have a grip on realistic economic policy, tea partiers are a great example of activists.

Now that we’ve got voting all figured out, let’s talk about ways we can participate in politics. Two spectrums on the participation scale are the in-actives and activists. In-actives are low-income, young people who probably don’t know that we have 535 reps in the House and will probably never vote. Activists live for politics and probably bathe while listening to NPR or watching CNN. Voting specialists only vote and are pretty much worthless beyond that. Campaigners, although not as passionate as activists, campaign for a specific candidate or issue as well as vote.

Typically, well-educated and devoutly religious people vote, respectively. However, with the rate of college graduation on the rise, voter participation has stagnated. Though there is distrust in political leaders, there’s no correlation between that and not voting. Registration has only gotten easier, now you can do so by mail or even on election day in some states. The main factors are the youth of the nation and the lack of activity from political parties. Also, if people don’t feel like the election matters, they won’t vote. Lots of young, black people felt that the 2008 election was important, so they voted. Will they ever vote again? Who knows.

Political participation overall has also been on the rise. Though voting rates are down, or maybe up (honestly, who knows? The textbook keep going up and down. Sounds like it needs a good dose of Viagra), we elect more officials than citizens in any other country. Most officials in European countries are appointed and need little help from the citizens.

Finally, let’s humble ourselves: government mostly serves the needs of the upper-class. The elite, after all, have far better knowledge of politics than the lot of us. Voting among minorities is probably the lowest in the different demographics. The language barrier among minority voters also makes it hard for them to get politically active. Perhaps in the future, we’ll find a way to get everyone involved. But, for now, freedom rings and justice wins out. America.