Dear voters,
I was recently canvassing for a state senator (I won’t say who), but I have this disturbing report.
Many of the people I met said they either didn’t know the candidates or they “didn’t care about politics.”
Eligibility and the right to vote in the United States was established both in the Constitution and by state law and the right has been preserved and refined through three constitutional amendments (the 15th, 19th, and 26th).
And yet, New York State in the last election in 2016 had a pathetic 57 percent voter turnout, the eighth worst in the country. Why is it that the right to bear arms elicits such passion, protests, and bumper stickers, and yet the right to vote gets little more than a …“meh”?
Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy. And yet Americans would rather get their news and opinions formed by cable news programs that compete with your entertainment eyeballs than from really researching the issues. Perhaps this is why supermarket checkout lines are stocked with People Magazine and The National Enquirer and not “The Nation.”
In any case, New York apathy at the polls is partially due to the pathetic excuse that whatever happens in a New York election won’t affect the nation. New York is not a lucky Midwest swing state where a handful of uninformed voters get to determine policy and presidents for 360 million other Americans.
However, you have the opportunity on Tuesday, Nov. 6, to affect national politics in a big way. You can elect a state senator to represent Port Washington, in District 7, who will vote for New York State Senate Resolution No. 26.
This resolution, which will be voted on by the New York Senate this year, is called the Tax Reforms Uniformly Made Public Act.
If approved, it will prohibit New York State electors from voting for a presidential candidate who has not publicly released at least five years of tax returns no later than 50 days prior to a general election.
This state law would apply to both Democrats and Republicans equally. But it would ensure that our voters, our electorate, is properly informed as to possible corruption, deceit, entanglements, and complications that a candidate may bring to the most powerful office in the world.
So, if you love your right to vote as much as your right to bear arms, go to the polls and go informed.
Before you cast your vote, ask yourself, will my candidate for the New York State Senate support and vote for this very sensible and fair New York State Resolution No. 26?
Cast your vote for yourself, for Port Washington, New York, and America. It’s your right and your duty.
Greg Winter
Port Washington
