by Ashley House
All over the world, other democratic countries hold their own elections throughout the year. Many of these countries experience higher voter turnout than we do here in the United States, where 86% of registered voters do take the time to vote, but only 56% of our eligible voters actually voted in 2016. According to the Pew Research Center, the US is ranked 31st out of 35 countries in voter turnout, with Belgium ranked number 1 with about 87% voter turnout. How are other countries getting citizens to cast their ballots?
It seems to be simple in other nations: voter registration is done automatically when you reach legal voting age and, in some nations, voting is mandatory. In the US, voter registration is typically taken on as a personal responsibility, and can often make voting difficult or confusing.Years ago, voting in my first round of elections was utterly confusing. I was not sure how to go about registering to vote and ended up registering on national voter registration day when someone on UIUC campus approached me to register. I was unsure of a lot of things and ended up not voting in the midterms that year, despite how excited I’d been to finally get involved in politics. I had a lot of unanswered questions and confusion, and I received varying feedback from the adults in my life. Over the course of the next 2 years, I did a lot of research to educated myself on the ins and outs of elections and voting in Illinois so that I would be prepared to vote in both the presidential primaries and the presidential election of 2016. This year for the first time ever, Illinois implemented automatic voter registration, which will compare your records to state voter registration records any time you visit the DMV to update identifications and allow you to quickly and easily register to vote or update your voter registration while you’re there.
Countries leading the way in voter turnout have something else unique about them: their elections tend to be held on Sundays or their election days are considered holidays. It is unlikely that the US would implement compulsory voting, however it could be easy to trade one of our current bank/national holidays out for election day. Most places do not take Columbus Day off these days, however banks and post offices are closed for the holiday. Labor Day, President’s Day, or Veterans Day are also likely options as there is no better way to celebrate your country, your freedom, and your democracy than by actively taking part in it. I think our founding fathers would be proud to have their legacy live on through Voting Day, which would allow the citizens of their country have a role in making it exactly what they want it to be.
Businesses could treat Voting Day like Christmas or Thanksgiving, and simply shorten their hours for the day, allowing their employees time to get to their designated polling locations. Employers could also be required to to give all employees at least half the day to vote. Currently there are no federal regulations in place for employers on voting days, however many states do have their own set of requirements to allow employees to vote. Here in Illinois, employers are only require to provide time off to vote if the employee requests it at least one day in advance, or if their shift begins less than 2 hours after polling locations open and ends less than 2 hours before polling locations close. These requirements allow employers to ignore the needs of their employees and any other responsibilities they may have outside of their job, leading to voter suppression.
For a country so proud of its democracy and freedom, we are far behind many developed countries in democratic participation and in overall voter satisfaction. In order for the majority of our country to be truly represented, the US needs to make a significant effort to increase voter turnout rates and end voter purging and voter suppression. Whether it be through mandatory voting, allowing employees the freedom to vote any time on election day, or through simplifying the process of voter registration, the US can and should do better by its citizens.