Voters Blaming System, Others Blaming Voters

Re “Demography vs. Democracy,� Nov. 5:

In response to Steven Hill and Rashad Robinson’s piece stating “young people feel left out of the political process,� since when does involvement in our democratic process require a prompt from another?

The Harvard University study said “83.5% of 18-to-24-year-olds were not contacted by any political party during the 2000 election.� This group must have been completely isolated from mainstream societal contact, as you cannot take a breath during any major campaign without inhaling a political message from somewhere.

Our system, our country and its people’s success are rooted in self-motivation and education, not waiting to be contacted, then feeling left out.

Ned Jones

Newport Beach

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The recent election is one of the worst voter turnouts in history. It’s a shame more people did not exercise their right to vote. I have always voted since I obtained that right and stress to my children, like my father did with me, that my vote can affect the outcome. However, I can sympathize with the nonvoters since the political parties have not given us the best and brightest candidates.

As for the recent results, Republicans say they have been given a mandate but have clearly ignored the fact that 60% of the voters did not vote.

This nonvoting majority has sent an obvious message to both parties that until you come up with better candidates and meaningful platforms, most voters will continue their protest. Naturally, party leaders will continue to ignore this message by maintaining the status quo, and not give the people what they really want: better choices at the polls.

Robert Lipot

Santa Ana

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Could it be that for more than two years many young voters have been disenfranchised? In the year 2000, my two older children were prevented from voting in what would have been their first presidential election. Since that time my daughter has established her own residence and is registered to vote there. My son, however, is still in school out of state, and because of what looks like a persistent bureaucratic error, he is again in danger of being disenfranchised.

On Oct. 18 the county registrar’s office processed my son’s request for an absentee ballot by changing his registration date instead of sending him a ballot. Apparently mistakes like this can occur when the mailing address of an absentee voter is different from the permanent address. It seems likely that this mistake was made not only in the current election, but two years ago as well.

I’m concerned that problems affecting my children are also affecting other new voters.

Elaine Booth

Irvine

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Re “State Will Be a Footnote in the 2004 Elections,� Nov. 15:

Russ Nichols says that he is puzzled as to why any thinking person would vote Republican, since anyone who supports Republican principles is “simply anti-earth and anti-humankind.� I’ll try to provide an answer that even he can understand.

We can start with 35 years of failed social engineering, costing trillions of dollars while doing more harm than good for the very people it was supposed to help.

We can proceed to the consequences of this monumental growth in government, one of which has been the creation of tens of thousands of government agencies, each with legions of bureaucrats who are empowered to make us all jump through their hoops (e.g., the federal government now tells bunk-bed manufacturers how to make a bunk bed), with the further consequence of a relentless erosion of our individual freedom to create businesses and jobs for ordinary people, and to produce goods and services that people want and need and enjoy.

Bill Savage

Orange