Registering to Vote

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Registering to vote is one of the most important things you can do. The right to vote without fear of harassment, reprisal, or coercion is one of the signs of a strong democratic government.

Registering to vote is not hard, and many people mark their 18thbirthday—which also happens to be how old you must be before you can legally vote—by doing just that. In the U. S., registering to vote can be done in one of two ways:

1.Downloading or procuring a copy of The National Mail Voter Registration Form, completing it, and mailing it to your state elections office.

2.Going to your state elections office (this may be in a county courthouse or other government building) and registering in person.

If you are in the military or live overseas for other reasons, you can find out how to register to vote by using Canada 411 resources. (Just because the name says “Canada” doesn’t mean you can’t find information pertinent to the U. S). Once you are registered to vote, you will probably be given information on where your voting station is located. If you aren’t, again you can use Canada 411 resources to find out.

In Canada, the voting registration process is a little different. You can register to vote by checking the box on your federal income tax return. This will automatically add your name to the voters list. You can also contact your local returning officer (this is what Canada calls its election officials). They can give you information on how to register to vote. You can find out who your returning officer is by using Canada 411 resources.

You can also register at the advance poll. You will need a photo idea or two pieces of identification from a list of those documents that can serve as identification authorization. Again, using Canada 411 resources can help you find out which documents these are.

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An Overview of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

January 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a momentous part of United States history in that it outlawed the discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the exclusion of African Americans from voting in the United States.

A Verbatim Statement of the Act

The act specifically prohibits all U.S. states from “…imposing an voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, or practice, or procedure…to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” Congress initially intended the act to outlaw the requirement of citizens to pass a literacy test prior to voter registration. This was an underhanded means by which Southern States thwarted African Americans from applying their rights.

A Summary of the Act

Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this bill into a law following the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act specifically established federal control over elections in those states that have historically proven discriminatory voting practices. In order for those states to implement any changes to the state voting laws, they must first contact the Department of Justice for pre-clearance. The majority of these states were situated in the south.

The Renewal of the Act

Temporary sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been renewed on four different occasions to remain in place. The dates of renewal were 1970, 1975, 1982 and 2006. Congress amended the Act to make a few sections permanent while the most controversial segment, section 5, was to be temporary with constant renewal. The last president to renew the Act was George W. Bush in 2006. The renewal extended the act for another 25 years. When former President Bush signed the act, family members of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were present in the audience.

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An Overview of E-Voting

January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How much easier would it be to log on to your own personal computer, click a few buttons and cast your Constitutional right to vote in any federal election? Voting via the Internet is not too far away from being a reality. E-voting is the electronic means of placing a vote and the electronic measures of processing votes. Under this definition, many voting mechanisms in the United States already qualify. For example, punch cards and optical scan cards which have been used for decades.

Current Touchscreen Voting Systems

However, most American’s think of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) systems when thinking of e-voting. These same DRE systems are currently under a great deal of scrutiny. The most realistic version of an e-voting machine is a tabulation device. This indicates votes being counted on an electronic system which is clearly much quicker than a manual count. Many ballot machines resemble DRE systems with voters using touch screens to make a selection and pressing the print button to output their vote. The election official takes this paper ballot and places it in a central lock-box for manual counting.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Systems

Although these are technically e-voting machines, it still outputs a piece of paper. On the other hand, DRE systems allow voters to view the options on a screen and make choices using an input device such as a mouse or a touchscreen. Some of these systems require a card swipe to be activated prior to voting. These votes are stored on a memory stick and transported to a central counting location.

The Issue of Fraud

Many critics feel the implementation of DRE systems present an opportunity for voter fraud. Advocates for the system argue it would take talented individuals who know the system well to compromise the information. Therefore, few people would be able to commit this type of fraud. Regardless, system vendors and election officials must consider many factors including voter secrecy.

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Voting American Style

January 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

American democracy has been so successful that it has come to the point most of the population takes voting for granted.  The reality is it has not been long since certain ethnic groups and  women were not allowed to vote.  Yet voting is one of the fundamental actions that developed our democracy.

The beginnings of our voting system start in England.  The common people did not have a say or vote.  The vote became the privilege of parliament and councils.  These positions were filled with nobility, the wealthy, and persons who through war, status, or social rank had become gentlemen and earned the right to vote.  This right included a small portion of the population less than 5%.  For most of human history, a few people are rich and the rest are poor, poorer, and poorest.

The first permanent English American settlement was Jamestown.  Jametown is familiar to us because of the love affair between Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.   When the first colonists arrived on the shores of present day Virginia around April 26, 1607, the leaders and the 105 colonists unsealed a box that contained the names of seven men.  These names were the picks for the colony’s council.  These councilors elected a president Master Edward Wingfield.  It was nearly the last time voting happened English style.

As the colonies grew and developed the government reflected the representative style.  Each colony created different voting systems.  Though these voting systems are narrow by today’s standards, the common theme was they intentionally allowed more and more people to vote.  It started with colonists choosing people for their legislatures.  Higher officials were determined by the King of England or by designated officials.

As the lists of who could vote increased and broadened so did our idea of democracy.  Voting creates and maintains democracy.  Voting is what makes America, America.

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Political socialization

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Socialization is the process where an individual acquires attitudes, values, and behaviors of a social position, and learns the attitudes, values, and behaviors of all other social positions in a culture.  Families for better or for worse are the first to socialize one.  Unless, one intentionally makes an effort to see the world through another’s  eyes that is where one will remain.  An education is the place where society chooses to expose you to the other perspectives.  All that being said, political socialization is the process of acquiring your attitudes, values, and behaviors toward politics.

Political science studies these phenomena during the elections.  Looking at group patterns, there are trends.  Voters turn out for presidential elections, and national elections.  Geography determines voter turnout.  North votes more than the South. Small towns have a higher percentage of voters turning out than big cities.  Democratic voters tend to turn out in large numbers when campaign issues are about economics.  Low turnouts favor the Republican party. Sometimes our shallow side shows. More voters turn out when candidates are glamorous and beautiful/handsome.  Yes, sometimes the American public puts candidates in office not for their intelligence about the issues, but because they look good,  Sometimes the American public redeems themselves and voters turn out for spirited issue filled campaigns and America creates statesmen.

Many would like the process to be more orderly.  History has taught us micromanaging politics results in dictatorships and abuses of power. Democracy is a messy process simply because it lets every eligible citizen have a voice.  Out of this chaos comes an order the rest of the world envies.  It is a very strong system that can allow chaos to happen with very little violence, and from that chaos pull out an order that represents at least a little piece of every citizen.  It is not our perfection making our American spirit, but it is our mess and our willingness to confess it, and do something about it.

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The Long and Short of Voting Ballots

January 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Our honored tradition of voting in secret has not always been. For a hundred years there was no secret ballot. In some states people voted orally and someone tabulated it.    Other locations used colored ballots provided by the parties. One party had one color and the other party had another color.  Everyone knew what party and what candidate you were voting for.   As always there was  a domineering personality, or bully lurking about who feels the need to tell everyone else what they are or are not going to vote for.  When that does not work, he/she recruits others to do the same.  Elections became places where you went to be beat up, intimidated, or killed.  This resulted in the decision to use the Australian ballot. Australians had concluded in the 1850s to stop intimidation, ballots need had to be prepared, distributed, and tabulated by government officials in private. The Australians were correct.

Generally today there are four types of ballots party column ballots, office block  ballots, long ballots, and short ballots.  Party column ballots are for general elections.  The arrangement was in columns with one party’s names, symbols, and candidates in each column. One could put a single “x” or pull a single lever to vote for all the candidates of one party.  No thinking, just it’s a party, join it. The office block ballot is a ballot where candidates are grouped together under the title of each office.  The feature is nice since it lets one know just exactly what they might be doing.  The long ballot is your state and local ballot.  Also, called the “bed sheet” ballot because it is full of numerous candidates, and a sure thing one of them will have scandal of that type.  In contrast, is the short ballot.  It has few candidates and offices. An example of it is the national ballot for the president and vice president.

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