Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Who's Really Voting For Your Bill

Vote. In the dictionary this word means a formal indication of somebody's choice or opinion.When I think of voting I think of one person choosing a certain item. Today in class I was introduced to a television broadcast that showed how voting works in our government. The broadcast was centered on a bill that was proposed that would make a person voting in the legislature present a photo ID when voting. I did not fully comprehend why someone would need a photo ID to vote if they were in the legislature until the piece continued. It showed how many representatives were voting for those who were absent. It was the most absurd and crazy thing you could ever see. There were literally dozens of little races all around the legislature were people were racing to vote for another person that was absent. It did not matter if you were of the same party, sat next to, or even knew the person they were voting for. They even showed how one person, while voting for another person, had his vote pressed by another. It was just a crazy puzzle of people voting for themselves and others. The first thing that came to mind was that there was no way that they could possibly do this; it had to be against the rules. In fact later on in the piece they showed the exact place where it clearly said that no one should vote for another person and that they could be punished for doing so. I guess the practice happens so frequently that no one is going to rat another person out. Another thing it made me think of was that this was definitely not the way a democratic system operates. Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they saw what was happening now. After watching the entire broadcast I understand why it would be a good idea for a photo ID bill. I suppose anything is better than what is being done now. It was quite disgusting to see how are bills are voted for. All i know is that things have to change.

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