Voting: Protecting the Right to Vote Essay

Introduction

Forgoing the opportunity to cast a ballot and having one’s voice heard in shaping public policy is one of the many negative outcomes of not voting. Avoiding the polls is the same as voting for the candidate with whom one disagrees.

Discussion

Voting is an important and self-satisfying exercise of conviction, which nourishes the spirit of shared interest that is necessary for the success of any society (Liu, 2016). A person’s failure to vote gives an advantage to incompetent candidates who benefit from their vote not being counted. People who do not vote enjoy the gains of a democratic process that they do not take the responsibility of maintaining.

Protecting the right to vote is best accomplished by emphasizing that it is also a civic duty. The US government should address the issue of not voting by enforcing compulsory balloting for every eligible citizen. Doing so will help combat voter suppression and break down barriers to participation (Krutz & Waskiewicz, 2019). Voting is mandatory in Belgium, as in several other European countries. The voting system in Belgium is the oldest and most reliable in the world (Krutz & Waskiewicz, 2019).

Conclusion

The United States government finds mandatory voting important, as in Belgium, since it upholds democracy, which cannot exist without the involvement of citizens in politics (Krutz & Waskiewicz, 2019). Electing candidates to parliament is a necessary part of building a democracy.

References

Krutz, G. S., & Waskiewicz, S. (2019). American government (2^nd ed.). ‎ XanEdu Publishing Inc.

Liu, E. (2016). There’s no such thing as not voting [Video]. TED. Web.