Why it is our Civic Duty to VOTE

To get to the point in America where all citizens who are age 18 and over, who are not convicted felons (depending on the conviction), took a lot of blood, sweat, tears, beatings, and death. Our right to vote has been a hard-won fight that took far too long to become a reality. It took centuries of struggle to establish this right — for propertyless men, for women, for African Americans, and, in 1971, for all US citizens over the age of 18. The right to vote is fundamental to protecting, asserting, and defining many of our other rights. Almost all of the social and economic rights Americans enjoy today — from Medicare and Medicaid, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and the Clean Air Act — exist because citizens elected public officials who voted to make those laws a reality.
Sadly, there are still too many eligible American citizens who are not participating in the political electoral process. The statistics tell the story. There’s a paper trail of the ugly truth that low numbers of American citizens exercise their right to vote.
Citizens of the United States need to understand that we build our democracy with votes. Through our votes, we demonstrate what we as citizens think our collective interests are; we empower officials to act in our name to push for those interests.
It’s the power of the vote that keeps our elected officials accountable. If only some people vote, elected officials are likely to give less weight to the interests and views of non-participants. Studies show that young voters (along with citizens with lower levels of income and education) are less likely to vote. It is sometimes said that no one person’s vote makes a major difference. But each person’s vote makes our democracy more representative of the will of its citizens. In close local elections, small numbers of votes can make the difference between whether a good candidate wins or loses.
Our country (and our world) faces significant challenges that require the action of government: Housing, healthcare, education reform, terrorism, poverty, and world wars.
As a citizen, each of us needs to vote based on our views and opinions about candidates who offer the best public policy responses to these challenges.
Now let’s take a look at what the United States Constitution says about voting:
Article 1 of the U. S. Constitution determined that members of the Senate and House of Representatives would both be elected directly by popular vote. The president, however, would be elected not by direct vote but rather by the Electoral College. The Electoral College assigns many representative votes per state, typically based on the state’s population. This indirect election method was seen as a balance between the popular vote and using a state’s representatives in Congress to elect a president.
Because the Constitution did not specifically say who could vote, this question was largely left to the states in the 1800s. In most cases, land-owning white men were eligible to vote, while white women, black people, and other disadvantaged groups of the time were excluded from voting (known as disenfranchisement).
While no longer explicitly excluded, voter suppression continues to be a problem in many parts of the country. Some politicians try to win reelection by making it harder for certain populations and demographics to vote. These politicians may use strategies such as reducing polling locations in predominantly African American or Latinx neighborhoods or only having polling stations open during business hours when many disenfranchised populations are working and unable to take time off.
Stay woke, voters. Don’t allow anyone or anything to deter you from voting on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, General Election Day across America. Everything, and I mean everything, is at stake. If you care about the future of our country, you gotta go vote. If you want to see our nation still in existence fifty years from now, you gotta go vote. If you are concerned about who the Judge will be, who will sit high and look low as they make judgments on the lives of people we know, you better go vote.
The deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania is October 21, 2024. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania is October 29, which is too close for comfort to me. Don’t wait until the last minute to handle your voter registration business or request a mail-in ballot. Handle your business right now.
Have questions about the Tuesday, November 5 General Election? Here are phone numbers to call where you can get answers in the tri-state area. In Delaware, call 302-739-4277. In New Jersey, call 1-877-658-6837. In Philly, call 215-686-3462. October 21, 2024, is the last day you can register to vote if you want to vote in the November 5, presidential election.