One year later: how would our country’s climate differ if we had compulsory voting?
Last year, I launched my “News Tango” series with the blog I’ll reprint below. I called for compulsory voting, after learning about a similar practice in Australia.
Well, after a majority of lifetime-appointed oligarchs (U.S. Supreme Court) ruled against policies a majority of Americans support, I say “I told you so.” Keep in mind that two presidents who lost the popular vote (Presidents George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump) appointed five of the nine justices.
Of course, those of us who are politically active or labeled as disadvantaged, saw this train wreck from miles away. We said: vote, vote, vote.
Yet, many privileged Americans, as the people I described below, ignored the call.
So, for that reason, I raise my voice again: let’s mandate voting.
Here’s my blog from last year.
Taking the following issues the Supreme Court ruled on in the term ending June 2022, think of how our public discourse might be different had mandatory voting been in place:
1) Would women still have a choice to decide what to do with their own bodies? (Probably so, because a supermajority supports a woman’s right to choose < https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1099844097/abortion-polling-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-draft-opinion>.
2) Would the law allow madmen to walk into a gun store, buy an assault rifle and then go on a shooting spree? (Definitely not, as 85 to 90 percent of Americans say those with mental illness should not be allowed to buy a gun < https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23141651/gun-control-american-approval-polling>. )
3) Could power plants inundate the air with pollutants? (Most likely not, as a supermajority thinks stricter environmental regulations are worth the cost). < https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/>
That said, here’s my blog from last year:
No Free Rides to Freedom: On July 4th, Let’s Advocate for Compulsory Voting
For the third year in a row, I’ll spend July 4th in Asia, where I live and work. Due to COVID-related travel restrictions, I’ve had to postpone my annual summer visits home.
I blame my summer sequester on former President Donald Trump. Had he nipped COVID in the bud, the pandemic would have long been history. However, promulgating anti-mask/anti-vax selfishness in lieu of the common welfare has reverberated into the current situation.
Yet, my plight irks me less than people minimizing the true meaning of this holiday. I’ve gotten a few barbecue invitations, of course, but feel apathetic about “celebrating.” I’ll admit that I’m relieved voters jumpstarted the stalled 245-year-old vehicle. But how can I celebrate when the engine is on fire? Just last week, the U.S. Supreme court upheld an Arizona law restricting voter access, paving the way for the passage of 400 or so similar (or worse) bills in 48 states. How can I light sparklers when those who have the keys to rebuild our democracy are sleeping at the wheel? I’m thoroughly disappointed that Senate Democrats are guzzling gas when they could cut the filibuster to pass H.R. 1: For the People Act.
So perhaps I’ll be called unpatriotic for not rejoicing today. But as a woman of color and daughter of immigrants, I’m accused of the same even if I’m flying a legion of American flags across my front lawn. I’m still traumatized by the former president inciting his supporters to shout, “send them back” to members of “The Squad.” It reminds me of the bullying I experienced in grade school. The message: if you’re not White, you’re American at our mercy and your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness can be taken from you in an instant (think George Floyd).
As I get “Happy Independence Day” memes in my messaging apps, I’m sickened. I want to shout back Frederick Douglass’s words, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? … a day that reveals to him, more than any other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim.” https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july
Then, I remember the late Congressman John Lewis’s words encouraging successive generations that we must keep “speaking up and speaking out.” In an op-ed released immediately after his death, he wrote, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.” <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html>
I compose myself and say, “as long as I have breath in my body, I must keep working toward an improved democracy.”
For that reason and in honor of July 4th, I will advocate for compulsory voting. If it sounds radical, I say why not? To make change, we must collide and prevail against right-wingers who have made it illegal to give water to a voter standing in line. We must fight fire with fire.
How would compulsory voting work? Of course, central to a strong democracy, we must take the time to discuss, debate and scrutinize such an idea. In the meantime, the Brookings Institution and the Harvard Kennedy School provide guidance in their 63-page report, Lift Every Voice: The Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Voting,” https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Br_LIFT_Every_Voice_final.pdf. The report cites Australia as its most poignant examples. As I learned from my Australian cousin when I visited her last year, all citizens must vote, or pay a fine. According to the report, this mandate has resulted in a 91 percent turnout rate (Pg. 17). Furthermore, voting is fostered by:
· Always scheduling Election Day on a Saturday. Early voting and vote-by-mail options are also available for those who cannot make it to the polls on Saturday.
· Automatic registration, online registration or convenient in-person registration at a Post Office.
· Mobile Voting Teams for residents in remote areas, hospitals or nursing homes; and,
· Access to a polling place anywhere in one’s home state.
But the numbers and logistics pale in comparison to the intrinsic value of universal voting. First, it makes citizens accountable for the country that serves them. In the report, it noted how in Australia, the mandate encourages citizens to take their obligation seriously and influences them to study the issues, parties, and candidates. Very rarely does the nation see scribbled or blank ballots. When a nation has provided one with so many resources and opportunity, it would seem reasonable to ask its citizens for this nonmonetary contribution: civic participation. I recall, during the most recent election, I asked a fellow American expat whether he had registered to vote. He replied that because he wanted to stay low key, he refuses to do so. Though he did not participate, this able-bodied and gainfully employed man still receives tax-funded services from the U.S. Embassy. How unfair that he gets services without contributing!! Sadly, this is the same attitude adopted by many Americans. Because democracy in its purest form is a reciprocal system, compulsory voting would mandate mutual civic responsibility.
Nevertheless, the deepest intrinsic value of compulsory voting, I believe, would be the superpower we could create. In a CNN interview earlier this year, American author Heather McGhee, highlighted the benefits of diversity < https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/05/us/heather-mcghee-racism-white-people-blake/index.html>.
“Research shows that diversity allows groups to think better about critical problems,” said McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.”
McGhee further points out that the friction of coming together from different backgrounds and looking at issues from different viewpoints create productive energy.
Imagine what America could be if more than 90 percent of our adult population voted. I know we’re not there yet. The idea has yet to hit a critical mass. But in spirit of birthdays, I’d like to make a wish that compulsory voting becomes reality in the land of the free and home of the brave. (And let me emphasize, home of the brave).
America was founded upon an idea and vision. Why not unleash this vision to its full potential?
I wish you a thought-provoking July 4th!
-Bo Rani
