Where the Heck Is Everyone?

In Why didn’t people vote this year? by Jon Green of AMERICAblog, published on November 17th, 2014, the abysmal voter turnout of this year’s midterms were discussed. Only 36.4% of eligible voters cast their ballots, bringing the voter turnout rate to the lowest it has been since World War II. 45% of non-voters said they were unable to vote due to conflicts with school or work, missing a registration deadline, or not being able to make it to their polling location. This subset of non-voters is almost as large as the amount of people who actually voted. Having people who want to vote but can’t is obviously a problem. Green suggests three solutions to this problem: Opt-out voter registration, voting week and mail-in balloting. After giving explanations of each possible solution, Green presents a call to action to those in charge saying, “That the solutions are so easy only makes action that much more important.”
In this editorial, the author’s intended audience are those who are of voting age and care about politics. His purpose is to encourage reform in the way we vote. He claims that the solutions are there and can be easily implemented. Green supports his claim with examples of reform at the state-level, as well as with statistics. Green himself is fairly credible, having graduated with a degree in Political Science and high honors in Political Cognition. I agree with Green that there needs to be change. However, I am on-the-fence about mail-in voting. While it has been implemented in other states, I’m not sure it is the best course of action. Other than mail-in voting, I like the idea of a voting week and out-out voter registration.