Monday, July 9, 2012
21st Century Politics and the Right to Vote
When you think of the right to vote, what do you think?
What should a person have to do to earn it?
Is it even an action that should be earned?
Or are we born with the opportunity to decide?
I want to share with you the informal, but still purposeful style, of our class blog. I also want to share with you a link from early June about what is going on in Florida right now as we lead up to the November Elections.
Key words:
Deja vu: to have seen something before
Purge: to remove; to get rid of
Swing state: a state where no particular party or candidate has control, thus each party/candidate seeks the electoral college votes of that state politics
LINK: https://www.aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/deja-vu-all-over-again-floridas-latest-attempt-purge-voters-rolls
What does this news story say about the state of our democracy in America?
Is this a new phenomenon? Or has this method of purging names from the voter lists been used before? Who used it? Why?
How will you learn more about this issue of voters' rights?
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This news story says that our democracy may be in trouble. If the Secretary of State of Florida can just claim that that many people aren't U.S. citizens without thoroughly checking, and then actually prevent them from voting, then what else can happen? The fact that this happened already in Florida is scary, because they obviously didn't learn from their previous mistake. What happens if other states jump on the bandwagon and try this method too? What will happen? They can't be 100% accurate, so that means American citizens will be stripped of their right to vote. That is wrong! Also, elections can come down to nearly hundreds of votes of difference in a close race. Preventing people from voting can effect the candidates and who wins, meaning the candidate who should have won may lose. That effects the country! The method of purging names from the voting list had been used by Florida's Secretry of State in 2000, Katherine Harris. She claimed the list of people were ex-felons and couldn't vote. She targeted the minorities and after the election, it was discovered that the list was "riddled with errors" and 12,000 legally registered voters were rejected of their right! How insane is that?! I can learn more about the issue of voters rights by reading the Voting Rights Act.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kaylee, if the purging of certain "ineligible" names can be done by someone we trust to do what is right with the power they have, and they don't, what else could possibly go wrong ? As I was reading this story I became very upset because I read the article from the perspective of a person who sees the importance of electoral votes and how every person counts. While I'm doing my AP summer work , I'm learning how populus and votes interwin so much. The slight change of a district by 10 people could effect a lot in a city, state, or federal election. Now I'm thinking if this is happening in florida at this present time , how am i not sure that this isn't happening in Connecticut right now? To be honest America right now is in a sort of rut. Politics is becoming more and more dirty and deciving each day we go on. Don't get me wrong I love my country , but I love it enough to understand that there is something terrible wrong. Maybe my opninon is slightly biased, but I am almost certain that it is a mutal feeling shared by many of my fellow citzens. This years election means so much to my future, our future. I don't mean just the presidental election either, I mean the election of our senate and house of representives. I recently wiki'd a picture of the House of Representives and guess what, it's majority republican. Who is in office means a lot for the future of our land. Voter's rights are being infringed upon. What is it going to take for America to wake up and see what's really going on? I don't feel like we are going forwards but more so repeating the past. Florida's government is repeating the year of 2000 when Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND NAMES (!!!!) to be removed off the rosters. I'm not sure what the point of this is for these Florida officals but it does not seem just.
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