Voting

When I was in high school, politics were something that meant little to nothing to me. Like most high school seniors, I had to take a government class in order to graduate. This class occurred during concurrent times with the presidential election of 2004. Assignments for the class included discussing the candidates viewpoints, watching the debates, and writing summaries of these two topics. This was the first step in the process of becoming interested in politics, even though it was a small step. The class strongly encourage everyone of legal voting age to travel to their polling station on election day and cast a vote in favor of the candidate who best represented their political ideology. When the first Tuesday of November 2004 rolled around, I went to my polling station located a few blocks from my house, and cast my vote for the candidates that I preferred.
At this time period, my interest in politics wasn’t too developed. I felt it was my duty to vote and that was the reason I went to the polling station on that special day. This was my attitude towards politics for the next year and a half. However, I began working for the Kansas Democratic Party, being introduced to the job through a friend. My friend’s father knew of this job due to his acquaintances doing some volunteer work, and the information traveled through the grapevines and reached my friend and myself.
When I first began working this job, I still didn’t have much more interest in politics than I had when I was a senior in high school. For this job, I would canvass neighborhoods, walking around talking to individuals and asking them a few quick questions. The job began to grow on me, and with that my interest in politics began to increase. At first, I just did enough at the job to get by, but then after talking to people on a regular basis, I realized that being interested in politics and going out to vote was an important thing for an individual’s life. From day to day, I would hear so many different thoughts and opinions on politics, some that I agreed with and others I disagreed with. These actions made me think that I needed to make sure my thoughts and opinions were voiced in the political atmosphere.
The best way to voice one’s politic opinions is to go to the polling station on election day and vote for the candidates that best represent the individual voting and their opinions. There are other ways of voicing political ideas, but voting is the one that occurs most often. However, there are a large number of individuals within our country that have a strong disconnection with politics. Whether they are uneducated in the topic of politics, they don’t care about politics, or they feel as if they are not being truly represented by politicians, there is the group of individuals who do not vote.
In recent times within the United States of America, there has been an increase in patriotism. Individuals proudly hang the flag of our nation and have magnets that proclaim a support for the troops. These individuals “wear their patriotism on their sleeves.” However, with this increase in patriotism, I don’t see an increase in the feelings towards voting. People don’t proclaim out their status on how they voted in the most recent elections, there aren’t bumper stickers stating individuals love to vote. I would make the statement that voting is an important part of being an American, especially if one is to be considered patriot. I wonder why this increase in political interest doesn’t go hand in hand with this recent surge in patriotism. Voting is a form of patriotism. I believe that this topic of individuals being more patriotic could be used to have individuals become more patriotic.
I believe that with the elections coming up within the next year, there has been an increase in political involvement, but I believe it is more based upon the issues that are going on within our nation and the interest of new individuals running for the presidency. I hope that this increase in interest in politics continues through the future. There are numerous possibilities for increasing voter turnout in the elections. There can be more information presented to individuals about voting by advanced ballots or absentee ballots. Advanced ballots allow an individual to vote prior to the election in case they are busy on the specific day, or if they are unable to make it the polling stations. An absentee ballot allows an individual that has a permanent address at one location and wishes to vote there, but lives in another location. The advanced ballot makes it easier for elderly individuals to vote, and the absentee ballot allows college students and military forces to vote if they are not able to return home for the elections.
I believe there needs to be an overall increase in education for the topic of politics. It needs to be something that individuals learn about for more than just a semester in high school. Voting and being politically active is an important part of being a contributing citizen to society. It is difficult to force individuals to care about something that they feel there is a disconnection with, so it would be an important part of the process to make it more of a representative process so that these individuals who feel are not represented change their opinions. This could be resolved by slightly changing the system and make it more accessible for third party individuals to be able to run for office and be elected. This would make it so there is more than just two options for individuals to choose from when voting for a candidate that is going to represent them.
Voting can be considered a form of patriotism, and if it is connected with that thought there will be more individuals who are want to be more likely to vote. There could be an increase in the number of advanced and absentee ballots. Education about politics can cause individuals to be more interested in the subject that affects individuals’ lives each and every day. If individuals feel as if they experience political disconnection, then there needs to be some changes done to the political system in order to allow other political ideas to enter into the main stream political arena so that those individuals who feel as if they aren’t represented have the opportunity to vote for individuals who will represent them in a better way than the two party system that is currently prevalent in the United States of America.

Jason