It's+fun.+It+matters.+So+why+the+hell+not?

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It's fun . It matters . So why the hell  not? -- Rita, Maxime, Julia, Luna.

(Maxime)  print ad (Rita)
 * Watch our video here**

**proposal:** Voter turnout in the United States is alarmingly low-a mere 52%. The issue is that people do not feel the need to vote because they “do not know about the candidates” or “they have no way to get to the polls”, but, in reality, they just do not care. The latter is the biggest problem; when people do not feel motivated, they circumvent action. The solution to this problem is to encourage non-voters to think that their votes matter. One strategy to encourage voting is to adorn the occasion: make it a celebration. Celebrations get huge national turnouts, quite unlike obligatory elections. An example is Thanksgiving: there are 38.4 billion people traveling 50+ miles away from home on Thanksgiving, there are also 117 million houses that are celebrating Thanksgiving (Butcher, 2009). These statistics show how motivated people can become. If the government organized a celebration for every Election Day, there might be more voters. One course could be to have a parade to celebrate every one's right to vote. Like New Years or Christmas, there would be one big parade in the big places like Philadelphia or Chicago and then local governments would celebrate in their own ways: mini parades, sales in the mall or fairs. This would develop a subconscious connection to voting and jovial, frivolous celebration. Therefore, motivating the non-voters to participate in the celebrations and, more importantly, go and vote. Non-voters who do not care use the excuse: they do not know much about the candidates. This might be true. Most political adds on television are very one sided and dishonest, one Pat Toomey commercial accuses Joe Sestak of being “too liberal with our money”(ToomeyUSSenate, 2010), a Joe Sestak commercial says that Toomey “is not on your side” (Sestak2010, 2010). The commercials that politicians are currently making are too focused on criticizing the other candidate, these deter people from taking the election seriously. The problem is that television is the best form of communication with non-voters and non-voters need the facts quickly and clearly. The logical solution is to have an unbiased third party that creates commercials, where the candidates stand on positions that most people care about: taxes, education and health care. This would be an easy and informative way for people, voting and non-voting, to understand who they will be voting for. This would hopefully inform non-voters and motivate them to action. Then, as voting day comes, non-voters need one last push so they do not regress back to their old habits. Cities could hire actors to dress up as women suffragettes, freedom riders or the writers of the constitution to walk around the neighborhoods, in character, prompting people to vote. They would talk to people about what they went through to get voting rights or how they created the voting system. This would be a fun way for people to remember that voting is a privilege. To effectively motivate people to vote, the government needs to create a connection between celebration and voting. The tactics listed above are the most effective strategies for creating more voters. When there are more voices, the decision would be more representative of the entire nation.

 Works Cited: (Julia) 
 * Butcher, R. (2009, November 24). The us turkey deficit and other thanksgiving numbers [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2009/11/the-united-states-turkey-deficit-and-other-thanksgiving-numbers.html
 * ToomeyUSSenate, Initials. (Producer). (2010). //Toomey plan.// [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4FYGnKl1SQ
 * Sestak2010, Initials. (Producer). (2010). //Not on our side//. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd6ptMo8dgM&NR=1

**Rebuttal:**

While creating a celebration sounds good in theory, there are a lot of obstacles that could prevent the idea from working well. Many people do travel all over to celebrate thanksgiving, but that is because it is a family tradition and has been going on for years. In order to make voting into the same kind celebration, people would have to think of it as a tradition, which would be difficult to start up. It would be possible, but only if people went along with it happily.

Even if it could become a tradition, there would be a large cost. Creating a parade and hiring actors is expensive, and that money would have to come from somewhere. The government does not have that money to spare. The country has “a federal government budget deficit of nearly $1.4 trillion, a national debt of $13.3 trillion” (Stenek). In this kind of distressed economy, finding extra money to create parades on election day will not be a priority – especially not a priority of those in power, namely the politicians who won elections despite low voter turnout. City governments may also have trouble funding parades and festivities. Philadelphia’s government is having trouble with budget. There are already many parades in the city, and funding was cut for many of them (Sicilia). Adding yet another parade to fund would not be popular with the people in charge of the city’s budget.

Other way to find the money could be to fundraise it, but that is also a difficult and expensive choice. The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University did a study which found that “In general, fundraising costs 24 cents per dollar raised. (Rooney).” Getting the money to have a parade for election day would be difficult for a single year, and almost impossible to keep up on every election day. The proposal also suggested airing ads that give unbiased information about candidates’ positions on a few key topics. Putting up that kind of advertisement would also cost money, so the problem of fundraising and getting government support comes up again. In order to successfully execute the idea of making voting “fun” and getting people to care, it will be necessary to somehow get money. It will also be a bit more difficult to actually get people to be interested in the idea. Those are the main problems that will come up, and therefore should be considered before trying to implement the idea.

//Works Cited://
 * //Rooney, Patrick. “Fundraising And Administration of Nonprofits.” IUPUI.edu. Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.//
 * //Sicilia, Patricia. “Philadelphia Targets Cost of Parades and Festivals.” Associatedcontent.com. Yahoo, 14 March 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.//
 * //Stanek, Steve. “Balanced Budget Amendments Don’t Solve Budge Problems.” The Bulletin. The Bulletin, 11 Sept. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.//

(Luna)