Showing posts with label Voting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voting. Show all posts

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Voting Rights

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY


Voting Rights

 

When the Court gutted Voting Rights

Back in twenty and thirteen

It was no longer necessary

Said the Chief of the Supremes

Eleven years later we look at the divide

It is plenty clear to see

The Chief Justice lied

 

When you make it hard to vote

For voters with dark skin

You make it even harder

For their candidates to win

 

Alabama, Georgia, Texas

Mississippi, Tennessee

They’ve all embraced the principle

Of racial gerrymandering

 

If that was not enough

To push down turnout in the cities

They made them wait for hours

While they shrugged: Ain’t it a pity?

 

So they got what they wanted

They tipped the balance to their side

It should not come as a surprise

The Court of all courts lied

 

Tuesday, November 08, 2022

Election Day: Depressing the Vote

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY


Depressing the Vote

 

There are many ways to depress the vote

A false sense of confidence

Victory is in the bag

The message has been sent

Or turn it upside down

All sense of hope is spent

Either way don’t waste your time

Either way the vote declines

 

Fake soldiers at the polls

With vests and loaded arms

Watching from a distance

Promise to do no harm

 

Misinformation wars

Rumors born of nothing

Rotten to the core

Hear the sirens sing

 

Voting is our duty

Don’t listen to their song

Your voice is all that matters

Not to vote is wrong

 

Monday, October 28, 2019

RECLAIMING AMERICA: EXPAND THE ELECTORATE


THE LONG WAY HOME: RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY




EXPAND THE ELECTORATE

By Jack Random



If you believe in democracy, you want to expand the electorate.  You want every voice to be heard.  You want everyone to vote, every vote to count and every opinion to be represented.  If you believe in democracy you fight to break down all barriers to participating in the democratic process.  You make it as easy as possible for every eligible voter to cast a ballot. 
If, however, you are not certain that representative democracy is a viable system of government, then you tend to believe that only the elite and well educated should vote.  You would prefer that the working class, the poor and the minorities – too often victimized by substandard education – sit on their hands at election time.  You would rather their collective votes not be counted in any real sense.  You would rather the “best and the brightest” choose our elected officials.  You would rather the common rabble stay home and watch football, soap operas or reality television. 
This is the dirty little secret of American democracy.  The elite have found ways to carry on the pretense of a functioning, majority-rule democracy while creating and perpetuating a corporate-dominant virtual oligarchy. 
The very last thing the anti-democratic forces want to see is an expanded electorate where everyone or nearly everyone who is entitled to vote actually votes. 
According to the Census Bureau, in 2016 there were an estimated 245 million citizens eligible to vote.  Of that total roughly 158 million were registered to vote, of whom roughly 138 million or 56% of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots.  While most Americans want to believe that our nation is the world’s shining example of democracy, we rank 26th on a list of 32 developed nations in voter turnout. [1] 
Those who support the way we conduct our democracy would have you believe that most Americans just don’t care.  Who knows?  Given how unresponsive our representatives are to the basic needs of the people, maybe they don’t. 
They would have you believe that those who do not vote should not vote because they are uninformed and uneducated.  The truth is far more sinister. 
The American system in its current form is designed for low voter turnout.  Virtually every aspect of our election tradition is intended to suppress voters.  We hold our elections on Tuesdays – a day when working people are engaged in labor.  Voting requires workers to get up an hour early or to invest a couple of hours after their working day is done.  We could just as easily hold elections on weekends or during the course of a week or even two weeks.  We could make voting day a national holiday so that no worker would find it difficult to locate his or her precinct and cast a ballot. 
The most recent trend in voter suppression is aimed squarely at the student population.  Activated by climate change, income inequality and the blatant racism of the Trump administration, college and university students have begun voting in greater numbers.  According to the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University, student voting more than doubled from the midterm election 2014 to the midterm 2018.  Consequently, Republicans have found ways to make it difficult to vote in the state where a voter attends school. 
In Austin, Texas, they closed down early voting stations on college campuses.  In Florida they did the same in 2014 but a federal court overturned the ban for 2018.  They are poised to try again.  In New Hampshire the legislature passed a law requiring students to get their driver’s license and vehicle registration within the state.  It is no coincidence that university students vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.  According to an Axios poll, an estimate 75% of students favor impeaching Donald Trump. [2]
It should not matter how the vote breaks down but it clearly does.  Such efforts must be fought relentlessly in the courts and in the court of public opinion. 
In response to Republican voter suppression laws, many states have moved to pass legislation expanding access to the ballot box.  Automatic voter registration laws have been proposed in New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts and Utah.  As noted above, other proposals to expand the electorate include same-day registration, expanded voting periods and election holidays that enable workers to take time off to vote. 
Many states make registering to vote more difficult than it should be and often require documents that they know many eligible voters do not have – most notably photo identification cards.  At present eight states have strict photo ID requirements while ten states have less strict photo ID requirements.  In states controlled by Republican legislatures there is a push for such requirements because they tend to affect poor and minority voters. 
We could make it easy for everyone to register.  The 1993 National Voter Registration Act required the Department of Motor Vehicles to offer voter registration.  Some states automatically register citizens to vote when they get their driver’s license or official identification.  Fifteen states and the District of Columbia offer some form of automatic voter registration.  All states should do so.  Automatic registration should apply not only at the DMV but at banks and utilities or anywhere that requires proof of residency.  Registering to vote should be as easy and convenient as signing a petition outside your local grocery store.  If memory serves me, activist organizations used to do just that. 
It is a peculiarity of the American system that every precinct and every state is allowed to create its own system of voting.  The process and the facilities should be uniform across all states and the District of Columbia.  An economically disadvantaged neighborhood should not have antiquated machines that cannot serve the number of voters in the district.  Every district should have the same machines and same number of machines to serve their voters. 
Some have suggested that voting should be mandatory.  I cannot go that far.  Voting should be considered a civic duty.  Citizens should be proud to vote and should be rewarded for doing so.  Instead, because jury duty lists are generated from the voting list, people are effectively punished for voting.  Proponents of the current system will say that jury duty is not a punishment but as long as such duty is mandatory it is an undesirable consequence of voting.  I suggest that governments should offer tax deductions for voting and jury duty should come from the DMV list. 
We have to change the way our political system works.  We have two parties dedicated to winning at any cost.  If the Democrats could gain advantage by enforcing requirements that would suppress Republican voters, I have no doubt they would do so.  Both parties should concentrate on lifting their own vote totals rather than suppressing the opposition.  Both parties should be dedicated to free and fair elections.  When they abandon that fundamental principle, the voters should exact a very costly penalty at the polls. 
When that happens we will have a stronger and more vibrant republic.  When people are invested in their own government, the nation will be stronger.  When elected officials know that poor people and working people will vote, more of them will listen and respond to their needs.  When more people vote there will be fewer officials who pay homage only to wealthy corporate contributors. 
When every vote counts and every vote is counted, the virtues of democracy will be self-evident and the principles of democracy cherished. 


1. “US trails most developed countries in voter turnout.”  By Drew Desilver.  Pew Research Center, May 21, 2018. 

2. “As student vote surges, so do efforts to suppress it.”  By Michael Wines.  New York Times, October 25, 2019. 

Jack Random is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles – a collection of 99 essays written from the year 2000 to 2014.  He has also authored novels, plays, poetry and short stories.