Make sure your voice is heard — vote! September 10, Here are just a few reasons why you should get registered and vote: 1. Elections have consequences. Not voting is giving up your voice. It's your money. Voting is an opportunity for change. The community depends on you! Behavior Health. Preventive Care. Health News. Senior Health.
Worldwide, the lowest minimum voting age for national elections is 16, including in Argentina, Austria and Brazil. The highest is in the United Arab Emirates, where citizens must be In Italy, there is a split voting age : The minimum voting age for the lower house of Parliament is 18 years old, while voters must be 25 to vote in Senate elections. Before the coronavirus outbreak, about a quarter of countries had used postal ballots in their national elections.
Out of countries for which data is available, 40 used postal ballots in their most recent national election, according to country experts surveyed before the COVID outbreak by the Electoral Integrity Project. Postal ballots were not available in most African and Caribbean countries, and not available in any Middle Eastern or Latin American countries. Paper ballots are by far the most common form of voting. Votes are cast by manually marking ballots in of the countries and territories for which the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network has data.
In a few countries, including Israel and Mali, voters select a ballot for a particular political party, put the ballot in an envelope and then deposit the envelope in a ballot box. Some countries use a mix of methods. Electronic voting machines are used in some large countries, such as India and the U. Voting by internet is used in four countries: Armenia, Canada, Estonia and Switzerland. In Gambia, meanwhile, the most recent presidential election relied on a system of placing marbles into drums.
The system was established in the s to address high levels of illiteracy. Most countries and territories allow voters abroad to cast ballots in some capacity. Among those, many allow external voting for legislative elections , presidential elections 88 or referenda 74 , and just 24 allow it for sub-national elections.
Nearly every country in Europe provides for some form of external voting, and many allow citizens to vote from abroad for multiple types of elections. Most European Union countries 23 of 27 also allow citizens abroad to vote in European Parliamentary elections. The United States Constitution, as originally written, did not define specifically who could or could not vote—but it did establish how the new country would vote.
Article 1 of the Constitution determined that members of the Senate and House of Representatives would both be elected directly by popular vote. The president, however, would be elected not by direct vote, but rather by the Electoral College. Because the Constitution did not specifically say who could vote, this question was largely left to the states into the s. In most cases, landowning white men were eligible to vote, while white women, black people, and other disadvantaged groups of the time were excluded from voting known as disenfranchisement.
While no longer explicitly excluded, voter suppression is a problem in many parts of the country. Some politicians try to win reelection by making it harder for certain populations and demographics to vote. These politicians may use strategies such as reducing polling locations in predominantly African American or Lantinx neighborhoods, or only having polling stations open during business hours, when many disenfranchised populations are working and unable to take time off.
It was not until the 15 th Amendment was passed in that black men were allowed to vote. But even so, many would-be voters faced artificial hurdles like poll taxes, literacy tests, and other measures meant to discourage them from exercising their voting right. This would continue until the 24 th Amendment in , which eliminated the poll tax, and the Voting Rights Act of , which ended Jim Crow laws.
With these amendments removing the previous barriers to voting particularly sex and race , theoretically all American citizens over the age of 21 could vote by the mid s. Later, in , the American voting age was lowered to 18, building on the idea that if a person was old enough to serve their country in the military, they should be allowed to vote. Why Your Vote Matters If you ever think that just one vote in a sea of millions cannot make much of a difference, consider some of the closest elections in U.
The election came down to a recount in Florida, where Bush had won the popular vote by such a small margin that it triggered an automatic recount and a Supreme Court case Bush v.
In the end, Bush won Florida by 0. Had more pro-Gore voters gone to the polls in Florida that November, there may have been an entirely different president from — Your vote may not directly elect the president, but if your vote joins enough others in your voting district or county, your vote undoubtedly matters when it comes to electoral results. There are also local and state elections to consider. While presidential or other national elections usually get a significant voter turnout, local elections are typically decided by a much smaller group of voters.
A Portland State University study found that fewer than 15 percent of eligible voters were turning out to vote for mayors, council members, and other local offices. Low turnout means that important local issues are determined by a limited group of voters, making a single vote even more statistically meaningful.
You may not be able to walk into a voting booth, but there are things you can do to get involved:. Participating in elections is one of the key freedoms of American life. Many people in countries around the world do not have the same freedom, nor did many Americans in centuries past.
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