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Take the summer to decide your vote in the upcoming presidential election
As the presidential election continues to ramp up toward the November election, we at The Advocate understand that politics may not be the most interesting or important thing in your busy life. Some might even prefer to go dig a hole in their backyard just to avoid it.
But before you flip the page grumbling something along the lines of "I hate politics," please give us a chance to let our voices be heard from our soapbox.
If you fill out a FAFSA and receive aid for school, if you pay taxes, if you think healthcare is a godsend or a spawn of the devil, you are armed with your vote to peacefully change any of the above if you choose to do so.
While we recognize that it is a personal choice to vote or not, the current state of the nation and communities calls for a more participatory democracy. Voter apathy is killing the whole point of a democracy.
Although it does not feel like it, the economy is technically in a recovery as opposed to a recession. The price for higher education has been rising astronomically, causing collective student loans to outweigh credit card debt nationwide. More and more, college graduates are facing unemployment. The income gap between the middle class and wealthy is also increasing.
Are the current policies and state of the nation reflective of the people? Something has gone awry here.
With this in mind, we'd like to point out an interesting and scary fact: Only about 20 percent of the eligible population needs to vote in support of one person for that person to take office.
Let's take the November 2008 report from the U.S. Census for example, since it had a relatively good voter turnout. About 70 percent of the eligible population was registered to vote, and 60 percent of the registered voters actually voted. Only a little over half (51 percent) needs to vote for one person for him or her to become president. That turns out to be about 20 percent of the population, and that's when voter turnout is "high."
In 2010 for the general elections, a little less than 60 percent were registered, and about 45 percent of the registered voters voted, which means that even less support was needed.
On top of that, older generations consistently churn out a higher voter turnout than young folks, which skews the representation of the nation as a whole.
The support of 20 percent of the country is not reflective of the nation as a whole. According to the November 2010 U.S. Census, a little over 30 percent of the population 18 to 44 years old reported that they were too busy or had conflicting schedules and could not vote. A little over 15 percent of all age groups reported that they did not vote because they were not interested.
American culture is one culprit for voter apathy. It is more of a "me" society than a "we" society. People think, individually, that their vote has very little impact on the election. Although this is somewhat true in the presidential election, where the pool of voters is nationwide and voting is done through the Electoral College, only 20 percent or so of active supporters are needed to elect a president.
Also, if people are turned off because they consider their vote not counting for much, that is even more reason to vote in smaller, local elections. Oftentimes local elections for representatives and policies are much more relevant to people's lives than national matters.
However, voting should be seen as a collective effort rather than an individual effort. The point of this democracy, which Americans so often advocate for, is so that the people can peacefully implement change.
At what point will people care? How bad do things need to be in order to make people inspired to vote? Starting now, we want you to care just a little more about politics and believe in your vote. The elections are coming up in the fall but there is more than enough information out there now that people can start piecing together a game plan for voting.
We understand that it's impossible to be aware of all the issues in the world, let alone in our nation, state, city, or even our school. On top of that, it's even harder to know about the approach each candidate takes about all these issues.
So dear readers, we'd like to end this school year asking you to start your voting research early, preferably over the summer before school becomes hectic again in the fall. So you can come prepared, so you won't be too busy or uninterested when the ballot is conveniently mailed to your doorsteps.
And we're asking that you at least pay attention to what is going on in your life. Be aware of what policy changes affect you and the people you care about.
Despite all this, we still believe in the freedom of choosing to vote or not. The beauty of this all is ultimately that we have the freedom from the government to choose how involved we want to be.
Note: voter registration deadline in order to vote in the November election is Oct. 16. Eligible Oregonians may register to vote online at oregonvote.org and click on "Register."
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