Today
is Election Day in the U.S., the second Tuesday in November. Today, I will go
to my polling place at my daughter’s elementary school and cast my ballot on an
electronic screen. But my first memories of Election Day are from my childhood.
The big, gray metal voting booths arrived at our local mall. I stood in line
with my Mama, and then a polling place worker pulled the gray curtain back for
us to enter the machine. We stood, facing, a panel listing all the candidates’
names along with various propositions and amendments. Mama would let me
pull the silver levers next to her selections. I felt so important. That night,
after the polls closed, the local and national news anchors reported the
results on TV, usually interrupting a show I wanted to see.
Now the results run across the
bottom of the screen, with only occasional break-ins by reporters for results
in important or close races. And we don’t have to wait for nightfall for the
results. Numbers are tallied quickly; races called with the sun still shining
and polls still open in the West. Of course, the year of the hanging chad
controversy, the counting dragged on and on…
I remember a year when I stood in a
line that wrapped in concentric circles around a gym floor. The hour was late,
almost closing time for the polls. The results were mostly decided, according
to the news media. Rain fell outside in the dark. But when 7:00 pm came and the
workers closed the doors, everyone inside stayed to cast their votes. We considered
it a right and a privilege as Americans. Yet, the U.S. has a low voter turn-out
compared to other countries. A table provided by George Mason University lists
the national turn-out in the 2012 election, a Presidential election year, at
58.2%. In 2010, the number was only 41%. Fifty-eight countries have higher voter
turn-outs. Uruguay tops the list with over 96% in 2009. France
had a turn-out of over 71% in 2012 and our neighbor to the south, Mexico,
turned-out over 64% that same year. Australia has the highest percentage, 93%,
of voter turn-out in the Western World with Belgium, Italy, Spain, the
Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Japan, U.K, Canada, Portugal, and South Korea joining
the Aussies with higher turn-out percentages than the U.S.
Sometimes I do feel apathetic about
voting. I live in a state that is always going to go for one certain party for President.
Does my vote even count if I vote for the other party’s candidate? That’s why I’m
for abolishing the Electoral College. This system for electing the president was
implemented over popular vote, because the Framers of the Constitution feared
that without sufficient information about candidates from outside their State,
people would only vote for a home-boy. They were also concerned that, with a
popular vote, no one candidate would have a majority sufficient to govern the
whole country. The concern that the largest, most populous states would always
choose the President, giving the smaller states no voice was a paramount issue.
But in our Information Age, available knowledge about a candidate is not an
issue; neither are regional loyalties. And
now candidates focus on campaigning in the swing states with the most electoral
votes. With a popular vote, candidates would campaign everywhere – a voter from
Maine or Alaska would be just as important as one who lives in New York or
California. Of course changing the
process would require a Constitutional Amendment.
Voter apathy in this country is also
tied to the increasing evidence that our government is inefficient at best and
non-functioning at worst. The recent shut-down in which a small faction of one
party paralyzed the workings of our government is evidence of how broken our
system is. Grandstanding for your political clout, your career, your 15 minutes
of fame, replaced sensible compromise. Moderates in both parties have been
silenced by those espousing extremist views on both sides. But the Tea Party
screams the loudest of all.
I’m a member of a Protestant
denomination that expressed a belief in separation of church and state at its
founding and has reaffirmed that belief through resolutions throughout the
years. Yet I hear in my church and coming from the mouths of so many who label
themselves follows of Christ, that if you do not vote for the candidates of one
certain party, you aren’t “right” with the Lord – pun intended. My reading of
the Gospels reveals a Jesus who talked more about getting your own life “right”
than right-wing or left-wing politics.
In that regard, I also think our
nation needs more than two parties. Our system is the exception in the world,
not the norm. Belgium has 7 effective political parties. France, Italy,
Portugal, Spain, Germany, Japan, Greece, South Korea, the Netherlands,
Australia, Canada and the U.K all have more parties than the U.S. The U.K. has 3 main parties and a number of
smaller parties that work together and form coalitions to govern, reducing the
dominance of any one party within that coalition. Compromise and moderation are
required for a functioning government. But a functioning government is not a
priority for many politicians in this country who only want to ram their
points-of-view down everyone else’s throats.
Still, I will go to the polls today to try to make my
voice heard. I will vote. If I don’t, do I have any right to complain about the
results?
May
your tea be sweet and your cotton high,
Leigh
Ann Thornton
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