Why arent we voting?

Doug received a call from Governor Huntsman’s office and was invited to be on a commission with the pupose to engage more Utah citizens in the political system. The official title of the commission is The Governor’s Commission to Strengthen Democracy in Utah. Doug recently made a visit to the Capital building to attend the announcement of the creation of this commission. Doug found it interesting that in the creation of the commission, Governor Huntsman did not give a place where he wanted the commission to end up at. Governor Huntsman went on to mention issues that eventually were going to be faced. Among them was the idea that was ethics reform. It wasn’t given any particular attention but was mentioned. Today an article was published that this commission was in fact an ethics commission. It was very interesting to see the spin that was taken by the press.

The Governor also threw out the idea of open primary elections. Closed primarys need to be don’t away with! As red as we are with areas that are now blue, we still consider ourselves to be independent. Doug resents having to show up and declare a party affiliation. Doug absolutely agrees that this is a big reason that very few are voting.

A real barrier was broken and a new landmark was made at so many levels with the presidential elections this year. In 2004 Utah was 18^th from the bottom of the list in voter turn out rate. In 2008 we were 4^th on the list along side Arkansas! Over the past 50 years Utah has gone from the state with the largest voter turn out to one of the smallest.

Doug had childhood memories of German immigrants that would crowd his grandmother’s house in order to vote. These immigrants wouldn’t dream of not voting, that was a major reason why they came to the United States. So why don’t we vote?

If you could of voted why didn’t you? If you didn’t vote call me and tell me why.

Caller Chris didn’t feel real interested in politics until the government buy out plans. Then he felt that there weren’t enough sources for accurate information to make an educated vote.Doug said that next time Chris didn’t feel prepared to vote, call him and Doug will personally deliver to Chris the sources where he can find this information. Doug said he would personally drive to Chris’s home and give him that information!

Caller Gale presented the idea that there is a lack of confidence in the government over the last couple of years. Doug thought it was interesting that Gale mentioned that because when the Governor was being interviewed and Governor Huntsman proposed a term limit to his own office and not one supported the idea and so he limited himself. This shows how people have been paying lip service. Doug thought that Gale brought up a real valid point of how do we inspire confidence back into the voters?

Caller Darrel gave a complaint that the voter location has been changed so often. He had to even take a GPS to find a voting place. Doug felt that we do have a consistency issue in the voting process. Usually the voting places are published in the paper and are certainly found online. There are organizations that will even drive you to the poll!