Voting During the 2000 Elections

Voting

During the 2000 elections in the United States, only a little more than 50% of eligible Americans chose to exercise their right to vote. Many critics have searched for reasons for this phenomenon: some hold that the overwhelming odds against a single vote making a difference serves as a discouraging factor. On the other hand, voting might be seen as a very important right for a number of reasons: Voting is important as a perpetuation of democracy; it should be exercised in honor of historical persons who have struggled for their voting rights; and voting should be exercised to demonstrate its benefits to the rest of the world.

Democracy is one of the most important paradigms in the United States. Indeed, the country prides itself upon being the country where its citizens have human freedoms and rights. Voting is one of these rights. By voting, citizens use their rights to make informed and powerful decisions regarding the way that the country is governed. Although some feel that their vote does not make a difference, this is not true when the cumulative effect of voting is examined.

Although the country has always claimed to be the "land of the free," the reality was not always keeping with this ideal. Ethnic groups such as Black people and Hispanics, and also women, had to fight for their right to vote. The many fighters who suffered and died during these struggles should be honored by using the rights that they won. It is not a right that should be taken for granted.

The news is filled with reports about countries where the right to vote is almost mythical. Women are oppressed, ethnic groups are executed for reasons not better than that they dare to exist, and the countries are ruled by tyranny rather than democracy. Voting in the United States can then be used as an example of the power of democracy.