Whatever the truth about Australia, what we can say for
certain about America is that voting levels are at deplorable lows. Despite all
sorts of “Get Out the Vote” campaigns from all sorts of people on both sides,
less than sixty percent of registered voters, according to Wikipedia, voted in
the last presidential election. And historically those are the years when voter
turnout is highest.
In some countries they have an issue with too many votes
being cast. Sometimes many more than are registered for a single area, such as
in Afghanistan’s current disaster with voter fraud. But in America, the
president even mentioned not long ago that, especially in off years, between
elections for the White House, it is difficult to get people to vote.
Where I am currently, in Los Angeles, California, there
certainly seems to be a difficulty in getting out the vote. It is so bad an
idea is floating around, too much debate, about possibly rewarding each person
who votes with an entry into a lottery of $ 100,000. Reading the Los Angeles Times yesterday, they had an
opinion peace on it, calling it “the worst idea” in a long time.
Getting voters to turn out was certainly not a problem in
historically, in places like Greece, where everyone who was anyone voted, as
well as early America. Perhaps part of the reason is that people have forgotten
the price others had to pay so they could vote. Others might be too busy. As
for the idea that your vote doesn’t count, think about this. While in
Indianapolis Indiana earlier this year, at the capitol building for an event, I
met a man who lost an election by one vote. Another whose election was decided
by seven votes. Your vote matters, and so does the other guy’s. If you don’t
vote, your ideas won’t win, his will.
Andrew C. Abbott
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