Make Voting MANDATORY??!??

With the ongoing heat about the elections many questions have been stirred up. One of the main topics is the issue of the amount of voters that do not vote and how that affects America. In the blog written by Yadira Ortiz, “Blog Stage Five”, she suggests that America should enforce voting to be mandatory. Which I believe, respectfully, serves no purpose and doesn't help the issue at all. Before coming up with solutions we must be aware and keep in mind what it is that is causing the issues. There are so many factors that can be taken into account such as the level of education. Many citizens of America unfortunately are not well educated. Whether this is about politics, the English language, the U.S. Government, or even something as simple as how to vote.

We cannot automatically assume that many aren't voting due to the fact that they either don't care or just simply lazy. Voting will become mandatory..and now what? People will just go and vote for whomever just to avoid what the punishment is. Psychologically this is what any human would do. Now will this help or worsen things? Another issue is the idea that our specific votes or opinions simply do not matter as we have seen during recent elections. Electoral College what is that and how does it work? According to an article, "Does my vote count? Understanding the electoral college," written by David Walbert he says that, "It also means that — at least in theory — electors can thwart the popular will and vote for a candidate not supported by the voters of their state. In practice, however, electors are pledged to cast their votes in accordance with the popular vote, and "faithless electors" who go against the popular vote are extremely rare."

Rare does not mean impossible. Sorry to say but it is pretty clear that the American Government is pretty corrupt. And I just refuse to believe that every politician or every person in office has pure intentions. Because not every human does and that is just a given fact whether we want to hear it or not.So I wouldn't really be surprised if candidates pay these group of people, that are suppose to represent the majority, to vote for them.

I just simply do not think that making voting mandatory for citizens is really the right route. Rather we should try and help citizens to become more interested in politics. This is where our true colors as Americans start to shine. We claim to love America and be and all woohoo constitution blah blah blah. But, we have NO idea what even happens and how it happens. Ms.Ortiz does suggest some thoughtful ideas such as making election days on weekends so that more people have time to vote. Which I think is a pretty good idea. But, will it solve the issue of the amount of people that will still not vote? This is a question that I believe that cannot be answered in one go rather so many factors must be addressed and I feel like we as Americans need to figure out what exactly that is instead of pointing fingers at one person or system.