Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

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Brian Donnelly November 28, 2006

Everyone should vote. This is what I believe.

Voting is not only a right that we all receive in our democracy, it is also a privilege to live in a nation in which the people are able to pick who they want as their leader. It is appalling that a nation that prides itself on freedom of choice and free will that only 51.2 percent f its population that can vote ends up at the polls.

Many people world argue that with out current system of electoral college, as well as recent scandals having to do with loose chads, and malfunctioning electronic voting machines, that voting has become a futile event in which their voice is not heard. Although I would not disagree that indeed voting has come into question, and our system does need reevaluating, I would also say that the only way in which this system could be changed is by instating an administration that will mandate these changes.

Webster defines democracy as:

1 a: government by the people; especially: rule of the majority
b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2: a political unit that has a democratic government

According to this definition, without the vast majority of its citizens voting, a country really is not a true democracy because ALL the people for the people do not pick it. The United States has become a symbol of democracy, and some argue that it has even gone as far as starting wars in nations such Iraq to spread its ideas of democracy. However, it is a disturbing fact that a much higher percentage of people voted in the first Iraqi election than in the 2004 election between John Kerry and our current President, George Bush, also taking into consideration that the Iraq election was threatened with bombings, shootings, and other acts to detour the citizens of Iraq from voting. Although numbers couldn’t be calculated exactly, one figure of which was available, was that 94% of Iraqis outside of the country voted, and in one region it was estimated that they had between an 80-90 percent turnout. These are staggering numbers against that of our just over 50 percent voter turnout. (http://www.cnn.com/2005.) Although we are a nation that is able to impose a system of democracy on a traditionally authoritarian nation, we are also a nation that is unable to really get right our own democracy.

This is why it is my belief that it is everyone’s duty to vote, know the issues, and have a say in their own government. If we want to keep this country as positive a symbol of a successful democracy that we have been viewed as in the past, we must first start to strengthen our voter turnout, and personal participation in our prized democracy.

--72.19.101.223 21:41, 5 December 2006 (EST)--72.19.101.223 21:41, 5 December 2006 (EST)