nIt’snimportant for people in representative democracies to actually vote!
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nAndnan awful lot of citizens who can vote just don’t bother to. A lot ofnthese non-voters are young. A lot of them say, โWhat does itnmatter? It’s just one vote!โ Some of them seem to think that votingnis bowing down to the people in power. Not voting, they think, isnthumbing your nose at the system. A rebellious gesture.
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nButnit’s not a gesture at all. The people in power love it when peoplendon’t bother to hold them accountable! As a recent poster said, โNotnvoting isn’t revolutionโit’s surrender.โ
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nInnother words, if more and more people don’t vote, they surrender theirnpower to make choices to the fewer people who do vote.
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nInnthe U.S., people have to register to vote before they are allowed tonvote on election day. Most states have regulations that voters mustnregister 15 or 30 days (or so) before the election, but eight statesnhave a way to register on election day, and then vote, and two statesnhave a way to register ahead of time but then also vote on that day.nNowadays many people vote through โabsenteeโ ballots, rather thannby going to the polls, so many, many people vote before election day.
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nTakenadvantage of today’s โholidayโ to encourage everyone you know whoncan vote (everyone old enough, who is a citizen) to register and tonvote. Here are some websites to help people do so:
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nDidnyou know…
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nInn32 nations, citizens are required to vote. (Apparently, not ALL ofnthese nations enforce this compulsory voting law.) Australians andnBelgians, for example, get fined if they don’t vote. What do younthink? Good or bad idea?
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nDonyou think the voting age should be lower? Checknout this earlier post.
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nAlsonon this date:
nAlsonon this date:
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