With the 2016 general election right around the corner, Americans remain divided on the
ongoing issue of whether or not voter fraudulence takes place at election polls. Republicans feel
as though laws such as requiring a government-issued voter identification card are necessary to
prevent fraud. On the other hand, most democrats claim that acts of voter crime is a rare activity,
therefore, restrictions will only prevent eligible citizens from practicing their fifteenth
amendment right, mainly impacting the elderly, minorities, and young adults. In an article by
Jeremy Kohler, “While Trump warns of vote fraud, experts say it's rare,” he debunks Donald
Trump’s accusations of voter fraud. In contrast to that article, Ben Quiggle,
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“A scheme to fix a presidential election in a battleground state would take
thousands of votes. Despite Trump's comments, John Hancock, chairman of the Missouri
Republican Party, said he's not concerned about that.”(Kohler) The author mentions this after
stating Trump’s concern about the possibility of a rigged election with voter fraud, as well as a
biased news media in favor of Hillary Clinton. Kohler repeatedly states facts on minimal voter
fraud in past elections. Clearly, he agrees with numerous democratic politicians and Americans
who feel a voter identification card remains unnecessary in the upcoming election. He also
reveals statistics and studies done by a myriad of universities including Rutgers University,
University of Missouri, University of California at Irvine, and University of Glasgow in
Scotland. The professors Kohler mentions express their views on the topic based on their
knowledge and research. For the most part, they all explain how voter crime persists in
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“Secretary of State
Connie Lawson said her office has found thousands of registrations that had birth dates and first
names changed and that they were changed on forms filed at Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices or
online.”(Quiggle) Clearly, Ben Quiggle is informing readers about what appears to be a
significant problem in more than half of Indiana’s counties, according to the article. He
enlightens the reader by using state policeman quotes, and then briefly describes what is said.
Without stating his personal opinion, the author’s writing is pretty convincing, even though he
simply informs the reader about the issue a hand. While the overall article appears to agree with
the concerns of voter fraud as a problem, it does mention the Secretary of State’s panacea for
cases of voter registration errors. Therefore, Quiggle does mention fraud acting as an error
instead of a crime, but not to a great degree by any means.
The two articles written by Jeremy Kohler and Ben Quiggle not only oppose each other
Do the authors appear to be treating the issue seriously? Does Brooks or Tannen seem to be more serious?
The voter ID issue starts with certain laws that, in the US, require that a person show a form of official ID before they are allowed to register to vote. This issue has split both Republicans and Democrats. According to Kenneth Jost, “republicans say [voter-ID laws] are needed to prevent fraud and protect the integrity of elections. Democrats say the laws are not needed and are being pushed in order to reduce voting among groups that skew Democratic in elections especially Latinos and African Americans” (Jost, p. 171). Both of these perspectives are valid, and with an open mind, can both sides have important points about the validity and inclusion of elections. On one hand, it is crucial to prevent fraud and keep the elections free of error, otherwise the outcome could be an unfair ruling. On the other side of the argument, voter-ID laws can cause discrimination and prevent people from voting, also
Society cannot let factions become disenfranchised and lose their self determination. The United States, a country founded upon the ideals of freedom and individual prosperity, cannot hold unjust elections brought upon by the current dominant political party. President Johnson created a bipartisan effort to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enriching democracy and continuing the American spirit of democratic values. Johnson united Congress with the simple message, “Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.” (Johnson) Today, the citizens of the United States must push Congress formulate an oversight measure to fix voter
Hasen, Richard. "Voter Suppression's New Pretext." the New York Times 16 November 2013: A- 19. Print.
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
During Indiana's 2008 General Election." Journal Of Law & Politics 25.3 (2009): 329-373. ContentSelect Research Navigator. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
The issue of low voter turnout is not an unfamiliar topic for most of us. We already know of this issue, but certainly we must not have cast a glance on the issue in the same perspective as Charles M Blow has written. He attracts the readers’ attention to the problem at the center at once, which is nothing but the voters’ ignorance. He deeply explores the question that why the same voter who knows that to solve most of his problems he would need the government of his choice does not show any enthusiasm when it comes to casting his valuable ballot. The same problems remain there year after year and election after e...
I found the problem with the argument of the article was there was no set argument that was clearly stated. If there was an argument in the article it was not clearly stated and I personally did not catch onto it. Altogether this was a well written article without a clear argument.
From its early period, the United States has obtained an indirect type of democracy, and has always had contentment that its citizens are allowed to vote for their representatives, especially the President. Nevertheless, the amount of citizens that actually vote in nationwide elections has decreased noticeably over the years. Voter participation and turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history. Voter turnout, the percentage of eligible individuals who actually vote (Ginsberg), to this day is lower than it was in the 1900’s. Since 1912, presidential elections have only had about 50 to 65 percent of Americans participate. This means that about half of United States citizens who are eligible and have the freedom to vote have failed to participate in presidential elections. At the end of the nineteenth century voter turnout started plummeting, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The declining rate of voter participation in the United States is due to voter registration and procedu...
If one were to look at the voting history as of late in America you would surely find information on the Florida catastrophe in 2000. The problem with our voting system today is in the technology being used; many demographic groups find our current systems confusing and hard to use. As voters step into the polling places this election year many will be voting through new devices some even sporting “touch screen” technology and we can only hope that the new technology is understood and accepted.
plays a big role in the way the article is presented and what angle it
To begin with, what is voter fraud? Voter fraud is the illegal obstruction of an election. Voter fraud is composed of double voting, intimidation, undocumented citizens voting, tampering with electronic or paper ballots, as well as deceased voting. Some opponents such as Attorney General Eric Holder suggest that there is not a problem with voter fraud. He also says that voter ID laws are “unnecessary” and has kept them from being used in Texas and South Carolina (John Fund). The problem is that most people think that voter fraud is a recent thing made up by republicans so that they can get more votes in elections by coming out with laws that will keep some people that tend to vote democratic from voting. The truth is that voter fraud has been around since voting started, and is a growing problem that needs to be dealt with. Voter id laws seem to be the only sensible deterrent for voter fraud. I will admit the laws do have some flaws, but if we don’t get rid of the problem now it...
from voting, but are used by creating new laws that would prevent one’s ballot to be
Voter turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history through the potential voters’ personal choice not to vote and ineligibility. According to research a large percentage of individuals are not voting because political parties fail to appeal to the voters and this leads to the voting population losing interest in the campaign, while others postpone registering and by the time they realize their delay the election is upon them.
With the changing of times and technology, modern electoral politics have begun using touchscreen voting machines to cast votes. These machines fail ten percent of the time and voters have reported their choices change from one candidate to the other before their eyes (Thompson). With the technical knowledge and access to the software for these machines, one person could easily change the results. One team of state approved computer hackers took on the challenge of hacking these voting machines. They were able to breach the system of practically all California’s voting machines and change results or take control of system functions (Wildermuth). Therefore, in states using voting machines, computer hackers could be skewing the votes without any traceable