The more I learn about Texas government, the more irked I am at the lack of voter turnout. Even among my politically charged friends, some refuse to go vote because they think it doesn't matter. Regardless of what I say to them, they don't believe that voting is actually important. How do we fix this?
To me, unfortunately, I feel that it may take an entire generation's worth of time to effect this sort of change and we should start the process right now. Quite a novel idea was mentioned during class in regards to making Election Day a Federal holiday so people have the day off of work and can make it to the voting booth. If the states truly can be likened to a lab experiment for other states, let's start in Texas and begin giving people that day off. Maybe it will start to trend with other states. Even with the day off, however, it is still a broken system and lacking. Perhaps in the beginning we would need to provide some sort of incentive. Incentives don't sound great to me either, but we have to start somewhere. Or perhaps we could hire an independent committee to present the entire ballot in layman's terms so it is easier for people to know what they are voting for in advance?
I don't have all the answers, but I do know that something has got to give. How can we convince people that their vote matters? What ideas do you have?
2 comments:
I agree that voting should be easier, we need a better way to interact with politics. In my opinion that is the main reason we have such poor voter turnout in Texas, we just don't interact with politics. We are affected by the political decisions made day to day, but we still don't interact with them. It's just not in a convenient method for us to take time out of our day to do.
In that I think a voting holiday isn't enough to make a large change. I think there should be multiple holidays to increase political awareness and interaction. Neighborhood communities that recreate historical elections and voting on old bills.
As things are, we do not touch politics. Something I learned in sales is that getting someone to hold the product is 70% of the sale. I feel like we need to do more to make politics into something the people can hold, something that is as much a part of their lives, as visiting the pool on a hot day, or going on a picnic with friends.
Robyn Evans addresses the issue of voting, or lack there of, in Texas. I agree that many of the eligible voters in Texas choose to avoid the polls during elections. There are several explanations but the most common one that I hear is…“My vote really doesn’t matter”.
Unfortunately, this is the view that most of the voting population has in Texas. I have been raised in a politically informed house and continue to observe political issues at the local and national level. Many people in Texas feel that their vote doesn’t matter because it is such a conservative state and no matter what, the Republican candidates seem to always win election by a large margin.
I talk to several people about politics on a regular basis and for the most part it seems that my peers share a lot of the same beliefs as I have. I then ask them why they choose to not vote and they simply just give the excuse of “it’s a broken system”.
Its time for us, the younger generation, to take this state by the horns. We need to all get out and vote, and drag our friends to the voting booths as well. People would be amazed by the changes that would occur in Texas if everyone that could vote would vote.
Remember, a lot of people have sacrificed and given their lives for us to have the rights to vote. Vote. and show them that it wasn’t in vain.
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