In the October 22 issue of The Stute, Jason Taormina wrote about his disgust with nonvoters. While his argument stops short of calling for mandating voting, his 'threats' to nonvoters are simply contrary to the spirit of this country.
While being able to vote is the basis of the representative government in this country, it is not something the Framers saw fit to require of the people, and for good reason. Being able to vote is a freedom, but so is being able to not vote.
Taormina tries to spur people to vote by calling nonvoters a "slap in the face of every American serviceman." He also makes a historical appeal, the gist of which is that if people do not vote, "you are among the Nazis and Japanese who tried to push back democracy."
Choosing not to vote does mean that someone does not support democracy. The choice not to vote is perhaps what makes all of us free. People should be allowed to make their own choices regarding whether or not to vote Their decision should be a personal one, not one made because they do not want to be called "Nazis."
Furthermore, Taormina makes the claim that, taken as a whole, the Stevens campus would have had enough votes to influence the outcome of the 2000 election. This may be the case, but the fact that the election hinged on a 537-vote margin is taken out of context. Florida's electoral votes, and as a result, the overall result of the election, were determined by those 537 votes. If all Stevens students had registered to vote in Florida, then perhaps it may have made a difference.
Stevens, however, is not located in Florida. New Jersey has traditionally voted Democratic when it comes to presidential elections. If we assume that 1600 Stevens undergrads voted in the last election, and all cast their votes in New Jersey for George Bush, Bush still would have lost the state by nearly half a million votes.
The race in New Jersey will likely be much closer this time around; current polls give Kerry a 7%, compared with Gore's 2000 15%, margin of victory. Nevertheless, it does not appear likely that 1600 votes—slightly more than .05% of the total votes cast in New Jersey in 2000—will be able to directly influence the race.
Your vote in an election does matter, but it does so in ways that are much harder to understand. I encourage people to exercise their right to vote, but I also understand that people in this country have the freedom not to.
Phil Gengler '05