It is time to institute mandatory voting. I say this because our society has gotten to the point where too many of us are not protecting our democracy with a care that would otherwise preserve it. Taking advantage of what our democracy offers yet not participating in it's basic necessity is to me "criminal". Therefore there must be a punishment that follows when an eligible citizen neither registers to vote nor actually votes. What else must happen is a benefit for those who do carry their obligation to fruition. Something like a increase in a tax for those who are not in compliance with their registering and voting duties and a tax benefit for those who do comply. Hit them where most seem to think from, their wallet and purse.
Another thing that must happen is the reversal of Citizens United and following laws. Public financing of elections will keep the special interests out of politics and force the candidates to focus on policies instead of personal attacks and obfuscation. A recent case in point is the Georgia 6th special election this last Tuesday. Over 50 million dollars were spent on this election with a non stop barrage of advertising and door knocking and still with all that attention in a race of national importance only 49 percent of registered voters bothered to vote, http://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-turnout-made-georgia-6th-district-runoff-look-like-midterm-election/JvuOXSaFvtnLC94E5mgnLK/.
If several months of non stop campaigning in one district cannot bring out more than 80% to 90% of the voters then that is a shame. When the turnout is under 50% then what falls below shame? Well, a broken system is what! So if it is broke then let's fix it and fixing it seems to require a mandatory application. Regardless of how the vote turns out we are not getting a true picture of the direction we feel we need to take when only about half of us are involved in that opportunity to express our direction for our nation. Like we had with mandatory military service, the time has now come for mandatory registering and voting. Sometimes we need to lead our citizens to where they are forced to participate when that paradigm is the furtherance of democracy!
Another thing that must happen is the reversal of Citizens United and following laws. Public financing of elections will keep the special interests out of politics and force the candidates to focus on policies instead of personal attacks and obfuscation. A recent case in point is the Georgia 6th special election this last Tuesday. Over 50 million dollars were spent on this election with a non stop barrage of advertising and door knocking and still with all that attention in a race of national importance only 49 percent of registered voters bothered to vote, http://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-turnout-made-georgia-6th-district-runoff-look-like-midterm-election/JvuOXSaFvtnLC94E5mgnLK/.
If several months of non stop campaigning in one district cannot bring out more than 80% to 90% of the voters then that is a shame. When the turnout is under 50% then what falls below shame? Well, a broken system is what! So if it is broke then let's fix it and fixing it seems to require a mandatory application. Regardless of how the vote turns out we are not getting a true picture of the direction we feel we need to take when only about half of us are involved in that opportunity to express our direction for our nation. Like we had with mandatory military service, the time has now come for mandatory registering and voting. Sometimes we need to lead our citizens to where they are forced to participate when that paradigm is the furtherance of democracy!
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