States in America are putting laws in effect that are trying to keep the common people from voting in the primary and general elections this year.
These laws restrict voter registration dates and requirements, voting dates and voter identification options.
This is resulting in a large number of voter protests, more importantly, this is discouraging Americans from wanting to vote at all.
California holds a primary election, not a caucus, meaning people make a statewide selection for the candidate they believe will win the election as opposed to supporting a candidate with local gatherings.
This process has pushed the Republican Party into refusing a Republican ballot to any registered voter not registered as a Republican.
This is troubling to any of the 20 percent of independent voters in California who want to vote for a Republican candidate but don’t want to commit to being a Republican forever.
As it is only 57.5 percent of Americans voted in 2012 and 22 percent of adults aren’t even registered according to the Pew Research Center.
People’s main reasons for not being registered are (among a few others) they don’t care or don’t understand politics, they see no point in voting and they have no confidence in the government. States making laws that restrict voters access to actually voting has caused protests in the states of North Carolina and Arizona, giving potential voters more reasons to not want to be a part of the political process.
The states themselves aren’t trying to take responsibility for voters being outraged.
An Arizona state recorder, Helen Purcell, even told Fox 10 News that the voters were partly to blame for long lines at polling locations and even blamed independents for trying to vote claiming that they slowed down the process.
Well she has a point; if nobody goes out to vote then there won’t be any lines.
A Democracy works because the general population has a chance to say what they want or don’t want and the government makes it available to them.
Putting laws in effect that limit the people’s ability to voice their opinion and actively trying to keep them away from politics goes against everything we believe is a democracy.
