In a country founded on democratic principles and where one of the most cherished rights is the right to vote, it’s incredible to think about the great lengths politicians have gone to give citizens every reason not to vote.
As college students we often get labeled “lazy,” because our voter turnout is extremely low compared to other demographics. I contend this is not true in any way, shape or form. As a political junkie, I’ve loved watching the insanity of the 2016 election cycle and was excited to participate in democracy today, at the polls.
I’m lucky — being a Wisconsin resident, I did not have to deal with the hassle of getting a new form of ID just to be able to vote — my license was enough. But the same couldn’t be said for my out-of-state peers, who had to adhere to new voter ID laws.
Voter ID may be one of the most worthless laws ever passed in Wisconsin. The form of voter fraud it prevents is almost nonexistent. Unlike other conservatives, I’m not conceited enough to believe I’m so popular and cool that someone would waste their day trying to become me and vote as me.
But voter ID laws are not the only hassle. Tuesday I experienced our voting process first hand and it was a shit show. I had to choose between skipping a class, skipping work or not voting. I spent more than an hour waiting to register and vote. And it’s not the polling place’s fault — the government needs to allocate more resources to polling places. There has to be a better system than the one we are using today.
Today’s system is time-consuming, if there’s one thing the average citizen in this country, especially the average college student, doesn’t have, it’s time to waste. Most students have multiple classes every day, jobs and a life. If I wasn’t a political junkie, I probably wouldn’t have voted. At every step of the way there was an excuse to not vote, an excuse to not participate in our experiment of democracy.
I needed to prove I was myself three different times, because the first two times weren’t enough. I had it easy, though, since I was able to just flash my driver’s license like it was an ID to an exclusive club. My driver’s license shouldn’t feel like a Six Flags Flash Pass. Being able to vote easily and quickly should not be an exclusive right to a few. It isn’t a privilege, it’s a goddamn right.
Luke Schaetzel ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and journalism.
