I Will Vote, Will You?

By Ed Maier, Former Andersen Partner

The below graph plots national general election Voting-Eligible Population turnout rates for presidential and midterm elections. These numbers are taken from Vital Statistics of American Politics (CQ Press, Stanley and Niemi, eds.) which I copied from the U.S. Elections Project website. Of course, historical turnout rates are calculated from data of dubious accuracy and are at times incomplete as a variety of estimating goes into the analysis. However, these historical turnout rates are regarded as the most accurate available.

I share this with all of you as information. I hope all of you are in the 50-70% of the population which has voted in my lifetime. If, for whatever reason, you were not able to vote in one or more of these elections, I hope you will take the time to vote in this year’s national elections on or before Tuesday, November 5.

I do not intend to lecture you on the importance of voting in this or any other election. In fact, based on comparisons with other countries that we might consider similar to us in government structure, the voting patterns are pretty consistent. For the most recent elections, based on the one data base that I selected, our voting participation in recent presidential elections was slightly better than the UK and France, a bit lower than Germany and somewhat similar to Canada. So, on a worldwide comparison, it appears we are doing pretty well.

Nor do I intend to “cry wolf”. I will not raise my voice and shout that this coming election is the most important of our time. Or that our democracy hinges upon it. Those are the rants of the extreme progressives on the left and the extreme conservatives on the right. In a system such as ours, all elections are of equal import.

I hope you agree with me that to cast our ballot in an election is the singular most important duty we must perform as citizens of a democracy. We may not want to stand in a long line on election day. We may have more pressing professional or personal reasons not to take the time on that day to cast our vote. That is understandable. But between now and November 5, in almost every state in the union, we have an opportunity to cast an early ballot. Surely, we can find the time to do so.

Please vote in the coming election. Let’s see if we can’t raise that participation level to new record heights.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. If you have any comments, I would enjoy hearing from you at edmaier46@gmail.com. If you enjoy my writing and would like additional samples, go to www.amazon.com and pick up my book – Think Straight. Talk Straight.