- Target:
- The American Voter
- Region:
- United States of America
The following is a letter I sent to all 3 of my federal Iowa representatives: Representative Dave Loebsack, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Senator Joni Ernst.
It pertains to a the lack of voter participation throughout America and a plausible revenue-neutral plan to help counteract this problem.
I entreat you to sign this petition if you agree, and please feel free to copy and send this proposal to your respective representative if you wish
Dear Senator or Representative.
It’s estimated that close to half of the American population failed to vote in the 2016 election. The reason for this failure to participate in the most fundamental aspect of our Republic varies depending on who you speak to, but many I have spoken to personally call it a lack of access.
Here in Iowa we have it quite easy. Given our relatively low population, voting is a rather painless process. Personally, my polling center is a church a little over 2 miles away, last election took me a total of 12 minutes to cast my ballot (I timed it from the time I left my car, to the time I got back in my car...12 minutes! and some of that was walking time). Because of this, I am quite happy (and proud) to have participated in every state and federal election for the past 18 years.
Looking at news footage across the nation, especially in larger cities and states where voting lines often stretch for hundreds of yards and requiring several hours of time, I can fully understand why someone would want to avoid that process.... especially when compared to my own
Which is why I would encourage you to either propose or support legislation that calls for a massive expansion to voter access. Doubling perhaps even tripling the amount of polling centers across the country as a whole...with the goal of easing the time requirements of the voter to cast a ballot.
A measure like this would be expensive, which is why I would also propose an idea to take a small portion of donations received by candidates for office (at the federal level) and apply that to an election fund that is used to both modernize and secure established polling places, and for the expansion previously mentioned. This would ease any burden to the taxpayer making it revenue neutral, and I am sure you would agree...money well spent
According to a CBS report last year, 6.8 BILLION dollars were spent on the 2016 election as a whole. This amount of spending is a problem in itself. The root of this problem can be addressed by first putting some of that money to better uses, and secondly (most importantly) by expanding our voter rolls to counterbalance the effect this amount of money has on the country I love.
I thank you for your attention, and bid you a good day.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Protecting Democracy...A letter to my represenatives petition to The American Voter was written by Michael Martin and is in the category Civil Rights at GoPetition.