The Importance Of Voting In The United States

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Voting is a sacred right that cannot be infringed upon; many groups within the United States have fought for this right. While voting is often emphasized during the presidential election, state elections are just as important. While choosing the leader of our country is important they do not affect your life as much as a state official can. States often have different rules than the federal government, as they are meant to play an active role in your life while the federal government plays an active role in interstate affairs and international issues. Each state has their own set of rules when it comes to voter eligibility and procedures; this is established by their respective constitutions and amended by state legislatures. The New York …show more content…

The oath requires you to swear that you will vote without fear of anybody and vote for the best interest of the state and its people. NYS does not require you to give an oath to vote, it is not even mentioned in its constitution. Vermont requires you to be of good behavior, which can exclude felons while NYS does not explicitly mention this limitation. The VS constitution also does not set a clear time in which you must reside within the state to vote in the primary, it only refers you to the General assembly for that time frame. Although this maybe be to prevent the amending of the constitution and add flexibility to the time it is not clear as to what the time minimum is to vote. The NYS constitution on the other hand explicitly lays out a minimum time frame. Like NYS, the Vermont constitution reserves the right to prohibit you from voting if you have received any compensation for your vote and goes further as to state you are subject to punishment by which the law shall direct. Although both limitations to voting in each state are similar, Vermont goes further as to prohibit any person being elected for a year if they promise to give any compensation for a vote either directly or indirectly. It goes further as to subject them to any punishment as the legislature may see

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