Getting our generation to vote is a major problem today and it is becoming a larger problem with each generation that nears the voting age, with less and less of that generation getting out there and not only registering to vote, but voting on Election Day -- the day that makes it count, where one voice is heard among many.
Getting our generation to vote is a major problem today and it is becoming a larger problem with each generation that nears the voting age, with less and less of that generation getting out there and not only registering to vote, but voting on Election Day -- the day that makes it count, where one voice is heard among many. There are problems that our young voting generation faces with not going to vote. It's not a problem that makes us wrong; it's a problem with getting our voices heard that flows with our own lifestyles. Our generation cares; however, it's the archaic method that we still use to capture the vote that limits the younger voting generation's voice -- we are becoming the silent generation not because we're mute, but because the society that wants us to vote has lost touch with how our generation shares its own voice. Although it presents itself as a problem -- getting our generation out there to vote -- there is a solution.
Why are we still voting with an archaic method of "going to the polls" that has been used since the colonial period? We're a generation of technology and advancement; we live in a country that supports technological growth. Our world has become more technologically advanced too.
We saw this advancement when we changed how we ordered products, from back in the 1700s going to the store, to the 1900s calling in our order on the phone, to the 2000s by placing the order over the Internet on our personal computer or Blackberry. However, this same advancement is not seen in how we vote.
The method to the madness remains the same: qualified voting citizens must travel to their voting destination during just one day and must wait in line to cast their ballot for their voice to be heard. Mistakes are made in this process; remember Florida in 2000? Our generation is so busy and consumed with just "life" itself that we are so efficient with speed in taking on tasks. Looking at voting and the cumbersome process that a person must undertake out of their day to cast their ballot, our generation knows that it's just not worth it.
Time is of the essence. We are a generation of multitaskers: We eat breakfast while on the BT, we IM to let our friends know we are attending that great party in Foxridge this Friday night, and we Facebook and MySpace on our cell phone just to see if our friend finally went ahead and changed his relationship status from single to "in a relationship." We know that it is not official unless it is up on Facebook or MySpace.
Has politics looked at a college student's class and life schedules on Election Day? If they did, they would know that we have class on that day and to go to vote in Blacksburg is almost as hard as taking that engineering exam that we studied for 12 hours the night before Election Day and still did not know whether we got problem 24 correct or not. Just that-- look at how much sleep we had the night before studying for that exam; we're lucky to even find where to vote with our sleep-deprived bodies. With absentee voting you have to apply through snail mail.
I do not know about the rest of the Hokie Nation, but snail mail is just used to send out those holiday cards. There is even a deadline to apply for absentee voting and between the night we cannot remember on Tom's Creek to the completion of an essay the hour before it needs to be submitted on Blackboard, the truth lies in all this! Our generation is dealing with a voting method that cramps the way we live. It goes against all that we go through and the little actual time that we have to do it in.
Wake up, Washington! In our world today, to get our generation to vote -- the vote that really is the most important because we are the individuals who will deal with the wrath our politicians make longer than any other generation has to deal with, just because we are younger -- change needs to come in how we cast our vote. There is no reason that we cannot vote online with a personal account that we set up that is monitored by the Electoral Board of each state. All citizens who vote have a social security number and other information that is personal and individually unique, such as birth date and permanent address, that we should just be able to wake up in our PJs and vote right then and there on our computer, cell phone, PDA, or iPod Touch with that information and cast our vote, our voice in the future. It is the online ballot that can be filled out anywhere.
Of course the traditional, archaic method does not have to go away, but it goes along with our multitasking lifestyle to have voting online where a system verifies all our information against a database and allows us to just cast our vote once because it is quick and easy.
This is what we need. This is the way our generation wants to cast our vote and voice to the future of our leaders on the local, state and federal levels. No more with the lack of an online system. We are a generation that cares but is caught up with life's many tasks that we need a voting system that flows with our life, not against it.
How far could someone get on Prices Fork Road with going in the wrong direction, against traffic? Of course, not very far -- only a few would actually be able to do it. This is how I look at the voting process today. It is too difficult and cumbersome for our generation. We need a system where we are flowing with traffic -- vote online.