Mandatory Voting In The United States

501 Words3 Pages
Would making voting mandatory promote the common welfare and success of the community? Or on the contrary, is mandatory voting a form of involuntary servitude? Many Americans have argued what it means to be a democratic nation, including the extent to which we as citizens should participate in the political process. Making voting mandatory would promote important civic virtues, allow the people to be the true power behind the political process, and help to better fulfill the founding fathers’ notion of “We the people”. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, civic virtue is “the personal qualities associated with the effective functioning of the civil and political order, or the preservation of its values and principles. Most discussions of civic virtue center on the obligation of citizens to participate in society by performing the minimally necessary activities in support of the state.” In our current political scene, we see that presidential elections are mostly about few individuals representing the dominate political parties. The campaigns of these candidates are financed by billions of dollars from private contributors, who have personal interest in the candidate’s success. William…show more content…
In today’s electorate, hardcore partisan believers are over-represented; independents and moderates are under- represented. If the full range of voters actually voted, our political leaders, who are exquisitely attuned followers, would go where the votes are: away from the extremes. And they would become more responsive to the younger, poorer and less educated Americans who don’t currently vote.” A current statistic is that less than 37% of eligible adults in the United States vote, which in total is more than 144 million Americans. Would the political process in the United States be different if these 144 million Americans participated? Would it align with the aforementioned definition of civic
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