Reform of Voters

Summary:

    Voters should also be included in democratic reform. To improve democracy, change is directed to encourage people to vote and to ensure that voters understand their decision.

Thinking about improving political democracy, first thing comes to one's mind is how to change the existing political system, such as the way representatives are selected and the procedure of government decision-making. There is no doubt that making a more equitable political system could achieve the goal, but I would suggest some changes to better voters' participation as well. More basic and fundamental than change in federal or state policies, change in voters' participation could benefit the democracy of society in comparatively longer term.

One vital attempt in improving democracy is to encourage people to vote. The voter turnout in the US is low (less than 60% in many elections), which means the scale of democracy is low and many further endeavors are meaningless. In order to include more people, we should firstly find out who are being excluded: 1. People who are not aware of the significance of their right to participate and to represent. They mostly holds a pessimistic belief on politics. They don't realize that their participation could make such difference. 2. People who are willing to vote but not enough information is available for them to make a decision. Not understanding who and in what way would be benefited, they choose to let go the precious opportunity. 3. The poor, who is the majority of the former two groups. Poor people are lack of money and time to dive into political stuff. They spent most of their time making a living. To this extent, they are unable and unavailable to participate in democracy. 

What can we do to help include these people in voting? Well, I have to say that comparing to my home country, which is a communistic country, the US has way more inherent democratic possibilities. Candidates are almost free to express their political tactic and ideology, and are open to suggestion and criticism from people. Political advertisement can be seen on newspaper and television. In my opinion, the advertisement is a good way to inform people what a politician can do and how will people be benefited. Comparatively, newspaper is affordable to the poor. I would suggest government subsidize political advertisement on newspaper. In this way, more information will be provided to the poor and more likely to arouse their enthusiasm in politics. Simultaneously, pay to everyone who does vote - which would have the effect of immediate boosting the economic well being of poor people. Money is a motivation that can raise their attention to political elections.  

When more poor people start caring about and participating in voting, the voter turnout will increase markedly, and therefore further reform in political system will be more effective. 

An other attempt in improving democracy is to ensure that voters understand their decision. A few online courses will be nice, just like the online mandatory alcohol course we take before freshman years. I believe a mandatory, not challenging online course before high school about basic political information and election procedure will help a lot. 

Consider requiring voters to take a simple test before being allow to vote, inasmuch as a majority actually cannot name a single that their representative has done in the past two years. This will also help choosing better representatives locally. When people are more informed and more enthusiastic about being informed about voting, every piece of vote will be more exactly beneficial to the democratic society.