Letter to the Editor: Voting Recommendations to Help Improve Democracy

The right to vote should be sacred in America. That right should especially be treated as sacred by local, state and federal governmental bodies. Those bodies should make it their sacred duty to do everything possible to make voting for their eligible citizens easy to practice.

Instead, today some governmental bodies are working hard to suppress their citizens’ right to vote, committing the ultimate desecration in our democracy.

Consider these five recommendations regarding voting that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has come up with in its free, seminal publication, Our Common Purpose (amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose).

1. Require complete nationwide adoption, through federal legislation, of fair congressional districts, to be determined by state-established, independent citizen-redistricting commissions.

2. Give people more choices about where and when they vote, with state-level legislation in all states that supports the implementation of voting centers and early voting.

3. Change the federal Election Day to a national holiday such as Veterans Day to ensure that voting can occur when many people have a day off from work.

4. Establish, through state and/or federal legislation, same-day registration and universal automatic voter registration in all states.

5. Establish, through state and/or federal legislation, the preregistration of 16- and 17-year-olds, and provide educational opportunities for them to practice voting as part of the preregistration process.

These recommendations are but a few to help improve our democracy. If you love this country and its fragile democracy, join together and do everything you can to support recommendations like these in our local, state and federal legislatures.

Patrick Cerra

Egg Harbor, Wisconsin