Election season is a fascinating time, if you’re interested. If you’re not, it’s hard to escape. Political ads are everywhere, from yard signs on your neighbor’s lawn to tweets promoting candidates on your timeline. People do everything in their power to make their opinions heard when it comes to who will win in public office.
Organizations and interest groups are no different — some are even going so far as to shame people into voting by arguing that it’s a “civic duty” all good citizens must practice. However, the Constitution doesn’t ever mention voting as a duty of the citizenry, let alone imply that it’s an obligation.
Despite this, groups like the Voter Participation Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to increasing voter participation, have been using this idea of civic duty to target citizens who have not voted in the past, urging them to head to the polls in the midterm election. The fact that there are organizations dedicated to aggressively pursuing increased political engagement, even for those who choose not to engage, reveals our society’s unhealthy obsession with politics.
For example, take the following postcard I received in the mail:
My first reaction after reading this postcard was anger. As though it’s not enough for political organizations to bombard me with rhetoric on television and my timeline, they’re now pulling up my voting records in an effort to make me ashamed. This is an egregious waste of time. Instead of perusing voter records to shame those only guilty of abstaining from the democratic process, these organizations really ought to address the reasons why citizens often exercise their right not to vote.
But shaming people into voting isn’t new. Back in 2012, the Morning Call published a column that revealed there were 2.75 million letters sent to people in 19 states shaming them about their voting records and urging them to vote. Some of these letters even revealed to recipients their neighbors’ records, and tried to use peer pressure to get people to vote.
America has become so obsessed with politics over the past few years that the idea of voting as a civic duty is easily embraced. While it sounds good, this idea is actually incorrect. But it’s the reason organizations can get away with those letters. After all, if a neighbor isn’t fulfilling his duty as a human being, it makes sense to condemn them. But it’s wrong: voting isn’t a duty, it’s a right. This means citizens can freely choose to exercise their rights or they can choose not to.
While it is clear that voting is not an obligation, what isn’t clear is why organizations and individuals ascribe so much value to voting and such contempt to the lack thereof. It’s as if voting in and of itself is virtuous — when in reality, vehemently wanting people to vote is self-serving. This is especially true if one’s party is at risk of losing power.
There are many reasons why people choose not to vote. In some states, it’s very difficult to vote. Mississippi, for instance, has very strict photo ID and prohibits no-excuse early voting. These laws can make it difficult to vote if you’re poor or if you work a demanding job. Some choose not to vote because they’re unsatisfied with their options. According to a Gallup study, about six in 10 Americans think a third major political party is needed. These are the problems that we ought to be addressing. Why aren’t we focused on fixing restrictive voting laws or changing our two-party system before we shame people for not wanting to vote? After all, shaming people into voting does not address why people chose not to vote in the first place.
Pretending that voting is an obligation detracts from the beauty of our democracy. If we want to be a truly free society, we need to accept the idea that people will use their freedoms in ways we may not agree with. If we cannot accept this, then maybe the issue isn’t about political engagement, after all. Maybe it’s about our inability to accept that for some people politics is not the panacea we make it out to be.
If you decided to vote in this election, good for you. If you decided not to, that’s fine too.
Ashley Keimach (@KeimachAshley) is a contributing writing at Young Voices.
