How It’s New York:Since the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, more than 2.5 million newly naturalized U.S. citizens have become eligible to vote; approximately 15% live in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metro area. [1]
How It’s Irish-1:An estimated 4,500 of these new voters were born in Ireland.
How It’s Irish-2:Both major party Vice Presidential candidates have recent Irish-American lineage, along with President Barack Obama’s more distant roots in Moneygall, Co. Offaly.
How It’s Irish-3:The video is part of “The American Voter 2012” series, a 2-month run of columns and videos by Hall Institute of Public Policy Press Director L.E. McCullough spotlighting how we vote and why — published at the Institute’s weekly newsletter at hallnj.org
The conventions are over now, but the campaign is going on– big time! And there’s more to being a citizen than sharing funny things on Facebook. Get out the vote! Thanks to L.E. McCullough for presenting info on this “new voting video.” Larry points out that:
Currently, out of 169 nations, the U.S. ranks 120th in turnout of its registered voters … a percentage slightly above Benin, slightly below Dominican Republic.[5]
Come on, we can do better than that! Here Larry shares with us the first of a video series on voting.
To encourage the large number of first-time voters in exercising their new voting rights, two nonpartisan organizations have created a 5-minute video voting promo —
The video was produced by the Hall Institute of Public Policy and the League of Women Voters of New Jersey and can be shared, linked to and downloaded for free.
Though the video pertains only to New Jersey, during the last year 41 states have made significant voting rule changes, especially with regard to the personal ID needed to vote at the polling place. [2]
Additional information about the expected impact of the new voting laws is found in a recent studypublished by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law:Voting Law Changes in 2012[3]and in a Hall Institute of Public Policy report: How Will the Voter ID Controversy Impact the 2012 Elections? [4]
“We have found that a surprising number of registered, first-time voters are reluctant to cast a ballot because they are unsure of what actually happens when they step inside the polling place,” says Hall Institute Executive Director Michael P. Riccards. “This video shows how simple and quick the procedure really is.”
Currently, out of 169 nations, the U.S. ranks 120th in turnout of its registered voters … a percentage slightly above Benin, slightly below Dominican Republic.[5]
Factoring in the larger non-voting but eligible U.S. population, that translates to only about 47 million of the nation’s approximately 236 million adults deciding who receives the power to govern the United States of America.
One in five making the laws for all the rest.
Will that be the calculus of American Democracy in the 21stcentury?
[5]Assessing voter turnout from 1945-2001, a report from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ranks America at No. 120 among the world’s 169 nations. The U.S. had an average of 66.5% of its eligible voters cast a ballot during those six decades … a percentage slightly above Benin, slightly below Dominican Republic, way below Lesotho (72.1%) Namibia (78.6%), Albania (88.0%) Cambodia (90.3%, Uzbekistan and Singapore (93.5%) and Australia (No. 1 at 94.5%).
