Put another way, this For the People Act would make it easier to vote rather than harder, something many Republicans have no interest in. The more people vote, the less relevant they become. More insidious than even the voter suppression mechanisms humming like cicadas all over the landscape are the portions of these new bills and laws that allow legislatures and judges to toss out election results they deem uncomfortable with minimal evidence of voting irregularity.
This is far worse than just stealing your vote. Yes, those who voted more regularly were higher income, more educated, more likely to be white and more likely to identify with one of the two political parties, but those who only vote some of the time were also fairly highly educated and white, and not overwhelmingly young. There were much bigger differences between people who sometimes vote and those who almost never vote.
Many of the people we spoke with described their decision to vote as very personal, boiling down to the specific candidates, their own ability to navigate the electoral system that year, or whether they thought their vote would matter.
There are clear barriers to casting a ballot that many of them experienced. Those barriers and feelings build on each other in ways that are complicated to tease out. Tucked inside his wallet were several forms of identification and his voter registration card. For Williams, voting has never been especially easy. Williams is certainly not alone in experiencing these barriers. Take Christopher McDonald, This year, some of these occasional voters are also dealing with pandemic-specific challenges that could make voting less of a priority.
For instance, people who vote more irregularly are a little more likely than those who almost always vote to have lost a job in the past year 13 percent vs. Nonvoters, on the other hand, trusted these methods less across the board. There are, of course, other systemic reasons why some people might vote more inconsistently. Our survey found, for instance, that occasional voters were slightly more likely than frequent voters to have a long-term disability 8 percent vs.
Black and Hispanic voters are also more likely to experience hurdles, perhaps in part because there tend to be fewer polling places in their neighborhoods. Every year, people make it sound like it's doomsday all over.
So how do we weed out ignorant voters without harking back to the days of poll taxes and Jim Crow? I would start by making the U. Naturalization Test -- given to immigrants who want to become citizens -- part of the voter registration process. If knowing the number of years a senator is elected to serve is required of anyone who wants to become a U. This has nothing to do with who a person is or how they may vote but everything to do with a person voting as an informed citizen, not a sound bite regurgitator.
Having a grasp of current events would be ideal, but if we could at least raise the required investment to engage in the political system, perhaps the tone of the rhetoric surrounding it can be elevated as well.
We wouldn't issue a driver's license to someone unable to pass the written test, knowing the potential damage that person could do behind the wheel. Why do we look at voting differently? While the Constitution lists the reasons why a citizen cannot be denied the right to vote, it does not explicitly say it is a federal right. This is why felon disenfranchisement and mental competency laws, as they pertain to voting, vary from state to state. I'm not suggesting we kick people out of the political process, only that we require them to have an agreed upon understanding of what that process is.
If people are too busy to read up on the government, the Department of Homeland Security is not going to escort them out of the country -- or take away away their citizenship. At any point in which ignorant voters are fed up with being on the outside looking in, they can go to the post office, pick up a brochure with all of the questions and answers in it, and study free of charge. But at this crucial juncture with at least two wars, a budding energy crisis, a growing trade deficit, etc.
In fairness, this is largely their own fault , but it would be foolish to assume every politician is like this. Politician enacts a bad policy? They change their mind and reverse it? Politicians promise improvements cut taxes, increase spending? Politicians promise to do something unpopular raise taxes, cut spending? A cast-iron guarantee it will happen. Many politicians are clearly in it for themselves, but there surely are plenty who really do want the best and just put up with the negative opinions they get.
So, for the record, not all politicians are idiots although your definition of idiot may vary. But plenty are.
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