Suffrage

In an effort to lovingly antagonize Dew(ed) and Cletus, this blog has been postdated by one hour.

If you are a citizen of the United States, no matter what color your skin is, you can vote.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."  15th Amendment

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the last presidential election, of those eligible: 42% of U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent were NOT registered to vote, 48% of Asian, 31% of Black, and 26% of White.  If any of these groups were to take a test and receive scores based upon these percentages, we'd have one disgraceful classroom.
Of those registered, actual voter turnout was as follows:  23% of registered Hispanic voters did not vote, 10% of Asian, 14% of Black, and 13% of White.

If you are a citizen of the United States, man or woman, you can vote.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."  19th Amendment

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the last presidential election, of those eligible: 26% of U.S. women were NOT registered to vote and 29% of men.
Of those registered, actual voter turnout was as follows:  11% of registered female voters did not vote and 12% of male.

If you are a citizen of the United States and at least 18 years old, you can vote.

"The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age."  26th Amendment

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the last presidential election, of those eligible: 55% of U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent and in the age demographic of 18-24 were NOT registered to vote, 57% of Asian, 43% of Black, and 41% of White.
Of those registered, actual voter turnout was as follows: 35% of registered Hispanic voters in the 18-24 demographic did not vote, 24% of Asian, 20% of Black, and 23% of White.

In the 2004 election, had John Kerry received 380,993 more votes in the states of Ohio and Virginia, he would have won.  If we were to take the number of U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent alone, who were not registered, add them to the registered voters, then assume that 23% of those newly registered voters would have (A) voted and (B) voted for John Kerry, he would have won by more than he needed.

This is a bad assumption to make for a number of reasons, it merely illustrates a point.  In the group of Hispanic Americans or Asian or Black or White who are not registered to vote/do not vote, a gigantic shift in results can occur by a significantly small percentage of the whole.

This means many things.  Mostly, it means that every vote does count.  Our president was elected by millions of single voters. 

I'm not here to say that our country wouldn't be in the mess it's in had John Kerry been elected, it's moot.  I am only here to say that it is astounding to me that voter registration and participation is not higher.

I promise you that among the 3.3 million women in this country not registered to vote, a big percentage of them have conversations, both informed and not, that involve their disagreement with some element of domestic or foreign policy.  The way I see it, that's okay as long as these individuals use it as a catalyst to make a different decision the next time, this time, to speak in a way that will give them the right to such conversations.

"This is the most important election in our history."  It's almost a cliche and maybe contributes to apathy.

So does this one: "I'm only one person."  If you aren't registered to vote, you are among nearly 55 million other such "one persons."  What a difference you would make.

Unless you're a white man, try and imagine what it was like those for who fought to enable you to vote at all and how good it must have felt when they won.

Please register to vote at voteforchange.com and, if you are registered, please vote.      

State by State voter registration deadlines
Census Bureau statistics cited above are not complete in that I only grabbed the 4 broadest ethnic categories.  Visit the site using the link provided for the most complete statistics.