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On August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified by the United States Congress. With that amendment, American women were granted the right to vote. While two states, Idaho and Utah, had given women the right to vote in 1910[1], it wasn’t until 1920 that all U.S. women were welcome at the ballot box.
It took almost 100 years, and countless hours and efforts to legitimize women’s suffrage.
As we get closer to the precipice of another presidential election, the right to vote again takes center stage. Voting and registration results from the November 2012 election, provided by the United Status Census Bureau, confirm reports of low-voter turnout. Despite the efforts of hip organizations (Rock the Vote) and the much-addressed “ground game” efforts, voter turnout could be better. In 2012, only 61.8% of American citizens voted. Here’s the breakdown:
- Of the total U.S population, (listed as 235,248,000 with the criteria including all races and both sexes over the age of 18), 215,081,000 were American citizens.
- Of those American citizens, 2 %were registered to vote. Of that 71.2%, 61.8% voted. (If you separate the women from the men, 63.7% of registered women voted).
Circle (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) released a two-day estimate of national youth voter (ages 18-29) turnout on November 6, 2014: [2] “At least 10 million young people went to the polls in Tuesday’s midterm elections — a youth turnout rate of 21.5%. The number of young voters in Tuesday’s election is comparable to the turnout seen in other, recent midterm contests. In 2010, the two-day youth turnout estimate was 20.9%, or around 9.2 million young people.”
Some efforts to continue to register voters and get them to the polls yield results. Since 2012, Rock the Vote’s website created an online voter registration) platform that has registered over six million new voters.[3] The 2012 Census voting results show 37.9% of men aged 18-24 voted and 44.5% of women of the same age range voted in the national election.
So what are some of the ideologies why people really aren’t rocking the vote?
“Some might argue that their vote doesn’t matter because they are in solidly blue or solidly red states,” says Prachi Gupta in a September 2016 article for Cosmopolitan. “Others might abstain from voting because they are upset by the current options for presidential candidates. But your vote has a strong impact on elected local and state politicians who pass laws that are likely to directly impact your day-to-day life.”
A feeling of helplessness is common among voters, especially those who do not prescribe to one of the two major parties’ candidates. If you go with the “vote for the lesser of two evils” approach, are you being true to your opinions? A common phrase is that if you vote third party, you are essentially helping one of the major parties’ candidates. That mantra feeds the two-party system.
In this election, your voice counts. Just as it took almost 100 years to secure the women’s vote, before that it took years to get voting rights for blacks. Before that it took time to achieve voting rights for those who were not considered wealthy or powerful. You get the idea. People have fought for the right to vote, and to waste that opportunity is giving up on one of our most fundamental freedoms. It takes commitment to not abandon the process, even when we are frustrated. If you don’t vote, your voice is not heard.
[1] http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
[2] http://civicyouth.org/21-3-youth-turnout-preliminary-estimate-comparable-to-recent-midterm-years/
[3] https://www.rockthevote.com/get-involved/register-voters/
By: Melissa Hardin Baysinger
