Civic Action: Voting, Part 2

Civics 101

NHPR

Education, History, Supreme Court, American History, Elections, Democracy, Society & Culture, Government, Civics, Politics, Social Studies

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Voting in America is not always straightforward, nor is its impact always clear. In this episode, we give you the basic tools to vote on election day, including tips for avoiding the roadblocks. And for those of you on the fence about exercising that enfranchisement, a word to the wise: your vote matters. We’ll tell you why.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
0:06.3	Before I started interviewing people for this voting thing, Nick, the question came up that often
0:11.6	comes up at the show. We're talking about voting. Voting can be a political act, but is voting a
0:19.9	political subject. And if we try to give people the tools to vote through this show,
0:28.8	is that a political act? We've had this discussion in meetings dozens of times, and to me,
0:34.0	it feels like it shouldn't be, but maybe that's just my gut. Yeah, that's my gut too. We've
0:38.8	talked about this a lot, but still I had to ask. Well, I'm so glad you raised that point that
0:45.2	asking or encouraging people to vote is somehow partisan, because my last book last year was about
0:50.4	the Constitution, how to read the Constitution, why, and sometimes talking about what's in the
0:54.9	Constitution is perceived as partisan. This is Kim Welley. After writing how to read the Constitution
1:01.2	and why, she wrote a book called What You Need to Know About Voting and Why. And yeah, she tells
1:07.4	people how to vote, and she doesn't think it's political. The reason that I say, go ahead and vote,
1:12.9	is that we all are Americans, and ultimately we are a government by the people. It's not a government
1:19.7	by the Republicans or a government by the Democrats or a government by Independence. It's government
1:24.7	by the people. Kim's thing is the framers set us up with this system that would allow us to self-govern.
1:31.1	No, depending on some King's good graces, we would be self-determined here. Voting is the tool
1:38.8	they gave us to ensure that. And if we don't exercise our right to vote, the alternative is that
1:45.0	politicians have the power. So I think it, I don't think it's partisan really structurally and
1:51.6	theoretically to encourage people to be to self-govern because that is the compact that we as
1:58.3	Americans have by birth essentially that is reflected in the Constitution. And I think it's really
2:03.2	doing a disservice, and it is partisan to suggest that somehow voting is not a good idea for any
2:11.2	individual because it's the only way that you can have your views heard. Regardless of where you are
	...

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