Voting Rewards Essay Example

About one hundred years ago every US citizen over the age of 18 was granted the right to vote. Being able to use your voice and officially partake in civic duties seemed respectable, even though you pick between a selected few, the fact that the government wants their people to participate is important. Voting to me is like ensuring your freedom and rights as an American citizen. In the US, the right to vote can be taken from a citizen, because of that we tend to see voting as a privilege rather than a right. Voting does not feel like a privilege when the citizen is responsible for getting registered and finding time to vote, it is not at the citizens leisure. To get voting turnout rates to increase, there needs to be something worth citizen participation. If the government included tax write-offs for registered voters that voted, more citizens would be interested in voting for the reward. Just like how you still get minimum wage when doing jury duty which is another civic duty, we are rewarding US citizens for their participation and to increase voting turnout rates.

The turnout rate in the USA for 2020 was 64% when in 2016 it was 55%. Sweden’s voting turnout rate was 87% and Singapore’s was a whopping 96%. Sweden and Singapore both have what is called Compulsory voting which mandates any citizen 21 and older to vote in political elections. The US does not allow prisoners or previous felons the right to vote, we also leave the responsibility of registering to vote to the citizens. The citizens who want to vote do, so how do we get the uninterested voters to vote? Young men who live in low-income families, barely passing high school are the citizens not voting. Even if all obstacles are eliminated, there is no want or interest for these young men to vote. If history or high school classes got their students interested in voting, they would be educated enough to vote. Without that, giving some personal gain to voters is going to get the best voter turnout in the United States. A tax write-off – like the ones you get when donating clothes to a Goodwill – is the best option to increase voting turnout rates in the USA.

One factor in decreasing voter turnout rates is having a poor education, not being able to pass a voting literacy test or putting yourself in an environment that shares unbiased information about the election to get engaged enough to vote. In an article written by the Congressional Digest points out “Among voters with a bachelor’s degree or more, turnout in 2020 was 80%, up from 76% in 2016.” while “Voters with less than a bachelor’s degree increased at a higher rate: 60% in 2020 compared to 54% in 2016.” Being more educated means, you are 20% more likely to vote, however education cannot be easily obtained by everyone. It would be easier to get voters interested in voting rather than educated enough to want to vote. One way we can get them interested is by offering a tax write-off to every registered voter that does vote, this will encourage a higher turnout rate and reward voting citizens who take their time to vote.

You would think that the pandemic would make it impossible to hold a space where every citizen can get their ballots completed, or that no one would want to go outside and interact in a public space, however voting turnout rates hit a record high. In the same article written by the Congressional Digest, they said “The COVID-19 pandemic did not prevent Americans from registering and voting at relatively high rates.” Having a deadly pandemic is the best excuse for not getting registered or not to vote; the fact that only 2% of the population did not get registered or vote due to fear of the virus shows that not only was 2020 the highest vote turnout rate, but that it will be the highest it can get without mandating voting or creating an incentive for the voters to get interested in voting. The Congressional Digest also mentions “Much of the surge in nontraditional voting was due to an increase in mail-in voting. In 2020, 43% of voters cast ballots by mail and another 26% voted in their ballots and 19% voted in person prior to Election Day.” Covid allowed US citizens to be able to vote non-traditionally, increasing the voting turnout rates by 11%. Low income, education, gender, age, and too busy of a schedule are all factors that can decrease voting turnout rates; We cannot change most of these things and covid has allowed us to vote non traditionally in the USA, the only thing to do that pertains to all these factors and increase the turnout rate would be to give voter a tax write-off for voting.

Recent elections have been slammed for electoral fraud; stealing mail ballots, throwing ballots away, being paid to vote for a certain someone, even being paid to stay home and not vote at all. Thom Brooks shines light on why vote buying is illegal. “This act of electoral fraud gives an incentive to members of the public to pervert public justice and alter the outcome of an election through manipulation” (Brooks 23). When a politician sees a manipulation tactic that does indeed give them more votes, they use it. Taking all bribes and false promises away, instead giving tax write-offs to every registered voter that does vote, gets rid of any voter fraud. That way voters get an immediate reward with no manipulation – not to mention keeping it legal. This will get voters interested enough to vote while also keeping politicians from scheming the people. If elections are more honest and less fraudulent, citizens are more likely to vote because of newfound trust on the outcome of the election and more frequently because they are getting rewarded for sharing their true opinion knowing everyone else is doing the same. Allowing citizens to become a caring community without forcing or manipulating voters to vote for a certain candidate.

Giving registered voters who voted an extra tax write-off would be the best reward for voters because it benefits everyone voting. For example, Thom Brooks (21) has argued that “If bribing is sufficiently widespread, then it may not be unfair to bribe where doing so might contribute to having a minimum of political influence and failing to do so would lead to my having none.” No specific candidate is involved with the voter's reward, this allows the election to have a higher turnout rate and a more honest one. Promising tax-cuts in your campaign is legal: if that candidate does not keep their promise office or if that candidate lost, their vote was casted on a false narrative which is unfair. Like Brooks said again on page 21 “Bribery and vote buying share a similar structure.” While bribing can be legal and an effective way to raise your voter turnout, it is unfair. Tax write-offs for people who vote is legal for everyone involved, is fair to every voter – no matter their decision – everyone is rewarded.

The US was lucky enough to go through a pandemic during an election because it gave us the ability to vote nontraditionally, even though the environment could have prevented voters from voting, it increased turnout rates by 11%. Most factors decreasing voter turnout rates are factors no one can control. When someone wants another person to take time out of their day and do enough research to make an educated decision, it makes sense to reward them for that time. Our current voter turnout rate is 64%. I believe that tax write-offs will be the next best factor to boost the rating without mandating voting. Plus, if 100% of people voted that would include the people not educating themselves before voting and felons or menaces to society which we do not want to influence our government anyway.