GET OUT THE VOTE!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!! Midterm elections!!

Tuesday November sixth is the day you (if you are eighteen and a registered voter) can go out and partake in some good old American democracy!

However, I want to talk about voting rights and voter registration within the context of bad political developments. Personally, I have never able to register to vote in an election until now. When it came time to actually register, I didn’t really know where to begin. I Googled the daylight out of the word “vote”.

“How do I vote?”

“Where do I register?”

“Where are voting locations near me?”

I didn’t even realize that I had registered to vote last year with the help of a group here at Rutgers who canvassed outside of Brower. Luckily, registering was that easy for me. This is not the case for people in many states in the country. Harsh voter ID laws, early voting cutbacks, and registration restrictions are slowly chipping away at people’s constitutional right to vote. These setbacks work in slick ways; for example, in North Dakota, voter ID laws require voters to present a street address. North Dakota is home to many Native Americans who live on reservations that lack street addresses. Thus, Native Americans are essentially unable to vote or have a voice in elections. Another example is in Florida, where, as per NPR, “more than 10 percent of the adult population is prohibited from voting because they’ve had felony convictions,”– 10 percent is 1.5 million people. Let that sink in. 1.5 million people cannot participate in their democracy because of a Reconstruction-era law that needs to be changed. Plus, if you consider how many of these felons are black people who have practically been streamlined into the prison system, reality becomes bleaker. NPR notes that a consequence of this means “…20 percent of otherwise eligible African-American adults are unable to vote because of the law.” Think about how differently elections in Florida would proceed if these Americans were able to exercise their rights…. maybe Andrew Gillum would be a lock for governor.

Unfortunately, a lot of eligible voters are simply disheartened and unhopeful that their vote would make any sort of difference. This is a misconception. First of all, I strongly feel that this sort of attitude directly contributed to our current Presidential crisis. Many people who I know who chose not to vote in 2016 did so because they felt their vote wouldn’t make a difference– Hillary was sure to win and our nation could never allow someone like Trump to win. While she did end up winning the popular vote and Trump’s win was on behalf of the electoral college, I still feel that if the results had indicated stronger support for Hillary, the electorate would not have voted Trump. Moreover, it is important for everyone to vote because that is the only way that we can create a government that truly reflects the people’s interests. I would really like to see everyone participate in the elections– even those who disagree with my own political views– because I think that is the only way to achieve the most perfect union we can.

So… everyone VOTE on Tuesday! There are tons of dedicated and promising people on the ballot.