A Vote Against Last-Minute Voters

Re “Let’s End the Embarrassment of Low Voting Rates,” Commentary, Aug. 29:

Letting someone cast a vote based on a last-minute decision to get involved is wrong. Many of these voters would be less informed. Some last-second sound bite encouraged them to vote!

Voting and being involved is not some impulse buying decision. It is the responsibility of citizenship.

Citizen participation is a cornerstone of our democracy.

When this country was founded, only free white men of property had the right to vote. That right has been expanded rightfully to every citizen. Our original electorate was extremely involved and informed. They founded, designed, implemented and actively participated in the greatest country in the history of mankind.

By expanding their right to every citizen we all are linked to their greatness.

How can we ignore our responsibility to our history by weakening that link and therefore our future?

There are three branches of government in this democracy. Voting allows every citizen to participate in both the legislative and executive branches and jury duty allows us to participate in the judicial.

To me, citizens who aren’t involved reinforce the problems that concerned our founders.

Rick Cleveland

Anaheim