[Winona Online Democracy]
Dwayne;
I think there are many reasons that other countries have a higher voter
turnout than
we do.
Some that come readily to mind include;
1) Lack of a "real difference" between the two major parties.
1a) Lack of candidates in the election(s) that the voting public can feel
will represent
their interests.
(e.g. look at the large number of new voters that Jesse Jackson brought in
with his
bid for the Democratic nomination in 88, and, although the media is so far
ignoring it,
those that Ralph Nader brought in this year.)
2) The winner-take-all elections that we insist on in our country. Most other
nations
have proportionate representation meaning that all votes truly do count. Just
think
how many more people would have no doubt voted for Mr. Nader last week if we
had that sort of system in the US.
3) Voting on a work day. If we can have off for Columbus Day and two days to
honor our war heroes, why not a National Holiday on election day. At least
once
every four years for national elections.
4) Lack of information about the candidates. Most people, unfortunately get
there
info about the candidates from 30 second tv commercials. And most of those
are
just negative ads attacking the opposition. The prevalence of such ads, i
think, turns
people off so much that by election day, they are so damn sick of the whole
thing
they just say "a pox on both their houses" and stay home.
I am sure that there are more reasons, but those are the ones i came up with
off the
top of my head.
Dean Lanz
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