Globally, voting has been introduced as a constitutional right that everyone who is at the legal age of voting is entitled to participate in most of the countries. However, the process has not been a smooth process due to the emergence of new policies, rules, and procedures that undermine the process to everyone entitled. Therefore, these real obstacles that block people from voting threaten democracy within the countries thus being against citizen’s democratic rights. Despite the sacrifices that people make during the voting days to ensure they fulfill their constitutional right, there set rules that deter them from participating. The paper seeks to explore the challenges and solutions to voting challenges in the United States modern society.
Voting challenges that prevent individuals from voting include; new voting rules. Some states such as Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia among others have introduced new voting rules which have left out may citizens unqualified for voting (Lopez 1). Therefore, this has deterred many from participating in voting exercises. Secondly, wrong voting cuts is another challenges voter are dealing with as these cuts have slashed the voter’s number leaving many without their voting rights. For example, Kansas among others has introduced rules that require one to proof of their citizenship (Lopez‐Guerra 232).
Consequently, there are some instances where polling places have been closed affecting thousands of voters who used to vote in those areas. Similarly, there have been instances of voters roll purge for example in North Carolina and Florida (Lopez 2). However, in the two countries, the purges have been undermined through a court order. Elsewhere, some provisional and absentee changes have been made with regards to voting. These strict rules have looked out many from the voting process thus blocking them from participating in fulfilling in their constitutional right.
How should these obstacles be addressed?
While dealing with most of the voting challenges, firstly, there need to be public awareness and civic education on voting and its privileges. It is through civic awareness that citizens would be aware of their expectations during the exercise thus reduced the number of lookouts for voters. In dealing with voters look out, there would be a frequent update for the voter’s list to ensure everyone above within the voting qualifications in the register. Additionally, Root and Liz (1) argue that introducing voting rules that do not discriminate is a step to ensure and prevent discrimination against various communities in the voting process. Improving elections infrastructure is an effort to ensure effectiveness in voting where all the registered voters would efficiently participate in voting. Also, avoiding closure of polling stations would also make it efficient for voters to access their voting stations thus being able to fulfill their constitutional right.
In conclusion, voting is a constitutional right that citizens within the set qualification participate in to fulfill their democratic right. Therefore, though there are set rules to guide through the voting session, there are arising issues that deter voters from efficiently participating in the process. Consequently, thee arising issues should be prevented to ensure everyone is eligible for voting if they fulfill the expected qualifications.
Works Cited
Lopez, German. “9 Ways to Make Voting Better.” Vox, 7 Nov. 2016, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/13533990/voting-improvements-election-2016.
Lopez‐Guerra, Claudio. “Should expatriates vote?.” Journal of Political Philosophy 13.2 (2005): 216-234.
Root, Daniel, and Liz Kennedy. “Increasing Voter Participation in America.” Center for American Progress, 11 July 2018, www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/07/11/453319/increasing-voter-participation-america/.