Next month, Illinois voters will vote in the primary for a nominee for president. For a nation that cherishes freedoms, a significant percentage will not vote. Only twice since 1972, when I was first able to vote, have more than 60 percent of Americans chosen to vote in a presidential election.
I emphasize chosen because in most states ex-felons are not allowed to vote. If you do the crime and pay the time, why remain disenfranchised? Research indicates that re-enfranchising ex-felons cuts the rate of recidivism by at least 10 percent, possibly avoiding many millions of dollars per year spent in incarceration that could be spent on more beneficial things. Only 22 states allow ex-felons to vote.
So if ex-felons desire to vote why don’t the rest of us exercise our electoral franchise? Is it because the single-lever voting machines were discontinued, so we voters now have to THINK and decide rather than vote the straight ticket? Is it because the messages are muddied by media barrages and robo-calls? Do you choose the most handsome, the taller, or the one with the biggest “war chest?”
How do voters beat the electoral and media experts hired solely to get their candidate elected regardless of prior reputation? One way is to log in to VOTE SMART. Vote smart’s mission is “to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to all Americans.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said of Project Vote Smart that it “Jammed a wrench into the spin machine, the political and media apparatus that anoints candidates and disenfranchises the vast majority of voters.”
I heard about this organization through Bill Dixon, a veteran in my GI yoga class (www.osotamerica.org). He fought for our country’s freedom and he now volunteers to ensure that we keep those freedoms.
Check out www.votesmart.org.
