When are we going to stop talking about race and start talking about voter participation? This is one of the most important pieces to winning elections, but no one is doing very much to ensure that more voters are getting to the polls.
No matter how gloomy it looks we “The Voters” have to take the government’s power back into our hands. We are the ones that can hold our government accountable. According to Fairvote.org only 49.6% of eligible voters voted in the 2018 elections with 64.9% voting in the Presidential elections in 2016. This lack of voting consistency has trickled down to our state North Carolina and all the way down to our local political fields. In North Carolina the main issue that we are dealing with is severely gerrymandered districts. A New York Times article published on November 29, 2018 states that although “NC democrats earned 48.31% of the total votes cast in the House races they only won 3 seats” vs. Republicans who had 50.4% percent of the vote but won at least 9 seats.
For Democrats the map doesn’t represent the popular vote, and they end up fighting for no representation in some cases because of the map issue. These Gerrymandered maps have been deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, but NC still held the elections using those maps, Go figure!!!
One key piece of information that voters need to understand is that Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in 57 of North Carolina’s 100 counties based on NC Board of Elections numbers. So, where are the Democratic VOTERS?? We the people are allowing good candidates to fall through the cracks because we as voters are failing to take ourselves and our villages to the polls— What will you do to change the issue? I hope VOTE!!
