Letters to the Editor: Think voting is easy? Talk to students and service workers
What a difference a few years make, you might be thinking. And you’re right.
As a recent college graduate I had thought that voting was an easy process, easy for both women and men, that we could be done with it in a few hours and that it was for the students to decide.
What do students think now? One in four, a new survey by The Pew Research Center released this week shows. Two and half of all first through sixth-graders (or those with completed high school) favor a national system of public voting for president, Congress and state legislatures — a plurality of 49 percent, with 35 percent opposed. Those figures have increased from 44 percent the year before, an increase of one percentage point. This reflects the growing power of young voters, as well as the growing influence of young people as the majority of Americans under age 40 are now eligible to vote.
In the face of this evidence, how can you still advocate for a so-called fair voting system, one that serves the interests of all Americans?
We need to be on guard against myths that voting is so easy that it is no longer worth exercising the right to vote.
We also need to be on guard against those who want to use the wrong information and tactics to promote their agenda.
In 2008, Americans rejected a flawed system in our electoral system.
But then, as a result of the electoral reforms, politicians have begun using the wrong information and the wrong tactics. That’s because they no longer have to work through a complex electoral system with millions of voters who are making their choices through a ballot at the end of a long day of work. They simply can get their message into the hands of the young people who are the majority of voters and who now increasingly use the internet and the media and social media to choose their leaders and their leaders to
